MindLess
by Silver Supa
Summary: When Akko suddenly collapses, Diana travels within her mind to help her from e doesn't have much experience in mind-melding, and it's a strange mindscape she finds herself in, indeed. But if Akko can manage such eccentric circumstances, surely Diana can do it without incident as well. ...Can't she?
1. Welcome to my Twisted Mind

_Note: This is a sequel to MindFull, so you may need to read that one first for this to make sense._

* * *

It was in the middle of the week following the wonderful date she had with Akko that Diana's more cynical thoughts came to a head. After their last class of the day, Magical History, she and Akko naturally decided to walk back to the dorms together. Something they had always done, but now found itself contextualized in an entirely new way since Akko had learned how Diana felt about her.

Funny, how just a little new information can completely change everything.

Of course, that was exactly the problem she had lately. The days after their unofficial date should've been some of the most carefree of Diana's life, and in some ways, it was. She couldn't deny she was happier than she had been in a very long time. Her heart still pounded in her chest with the bright smiles Akko sent her way, and suddenly even these benign little walks to and from class became grand moments simply because they were together during them. So her regrets had absolutely nothing to do with the girl she cared for, nor the time they shared.

No, what Diana regretted was her own behavior during the date. All the times she tripped over her words, stuttered, let her feelings for Akko get the better of her…it was just foolish. Juvenile, stupid, and utterly beneath her. Yes, it was new territory for her, but the way she just panicked and flailed when Akko so much as complimented her made her look like an idiot. She just seemed to lose complete control of her thoughts. And then there was the fact that one week ago, she had been incapacitated by a perverse demon and required Akko to travel within her head and fix her from the inside out. She still wasn't sure how to feel about that whole thing.

She _did_ trust Akko. She trusted her implicitly with her insecurities and vulnerabilities. To say Diana was glad that Akko knew not only how she felt, but actually appeared to reciprocate those feelings was a vast understatement. If ever there was a person she felt safe enough with to bare her soul to, it was her. And Akko's subsequent actions proved exactly why Diana had fallen for her.

Yet that trust with her innermost thoughts was the exact reason why Diana wished Akko had never seen them. The irony that the one person she really wanted to impress would see her in a state when she had no control over herself more than annoyed her. Not that Akko had ever treated her with any more deference than she did all her other friends, but still, it gnawed at Diana's insides that she couldn't ever seem to keep herself in line around Akko when her opinion was just so important.

She made a declaration then, that if she were to be in a relationship, she was going to remain in better control of herself and her emotions, more than ever. Both because Akko deserved a respectable girlfriend (regardless of the fact that she paid no mind when Diana acted less so) and because Diana never settled for anything less than as close to perfect as she could get. She needed to prove to both of them she was above such childishness.

As they left the classroom towards the dorms, Akko let out a frustrated groan. "Ugh…that class is way too hard. How can anyone stand it?"

"It's just reading, Akko." Diana shrugged. "Besides, you already know that to become a great witch like you want to be, you just need to put in the work."

"Yeah, yeah. I know." She groaned, massaging her forehead. "But it's long and it's boring."

"You know, I told you that if you ever needed support, I'm here for you."

She couldn't help but smile at the light blush on Akko's cheeks. "T-thanks…but you don't need to do that! Don't worry about me, okay? I can figure it out, really!"

"I know you can." Diana said. "But regardless, if you ever need it, I'm always willing to help you."

She glanced down just in time to see Akko hesitantly reach for her hand only to quickly pull back, as though nothing happened. Neither of them commented on it.

She couldn't help but wonder about this more withdrawn side of her. Akko was unabashedly happy that they were dating. She was as loud, proud and boisterous with that fact as she was with anything. In the few short days since Saturday, she cheerfully told just about every one of her friends about it, far sooner than Diana would've, given she was fairly certain it took at least two dates to be officially dating. Yet, when they were alone together like this, Akko seemed to become much more bashful.

It did give Diana more time to compose herself and make sure she didn't do anything too foolish. And they had only been together for a few days, and not even officially, considering how they had more or less avoided calling their date as such. She hardly considered it proper to be openly affectionate so early on, and that was the thing holding her back. She was just curious as to what was making someone as sure of herself as Akko hesitate.

As they continued on towards their respective rooms, Diana found that their walk was turning out much quieter than usual. And even beyond Akko's atypical bashfulness, she didn't even seem to be trying to make conversation as she always did. In fact, she looked…a little paler than usual. Her eyes were glazed over, and beads of sweat began forming on her forehead. Every few minutes, she would massage the spot between her brows.

"Are you feeling okay?" Diana asked. "You've been touching your head a lot."

"What?" Akko seemed surprised that she had noticed. "Y-yeah, no, I'm good. Just…suddenly got a headache again. It comes and goes."

Diana's brows furrowed. "Have you not been feeling well lately? You never told me. Do you…need anything?"

Akko forced out a laugh. "I-it's no big deal or anything!" She ran the hand on her forehead through her hair, acting as though it was her intention all along. "…it's just kinda…strong today…"

Considering her informal promise to herself, Diana couldn't help but feel a bit annoyed she couldn't do more. Granted, it was just a headache (and she was… _aware_ she had a tendency to overthink things) but still, it would be nice if she could help Akko feel better. Especially if it's been something that's reoccurring. It would ease her own anxieties considerably to prove she could be counted on when it would actually make a difference.

Diana nodded sympathetically. "Well, if you're sure you're alright…"

Akko rubbed her eyes. "Is what white?"

"That's not what I-" Diana pursed her lips, with a displeased hum. "Akko…how long have you not been feeling well? If you tell me what's wrong, maybe I can-"

"No, it's _fine,_ Diana!" She argued. "You don't need to…I dunno, I'll figure it out by myself. D-don't worry about it!"

"If you need to go to the nurse…"

Akko visibly winced. "Nah, the new one they hired doesn't…really like me. I mean…c-could you maybe do a healing spell or something?"

Diana shook her head. "Healing spells don't really have much effect on headaches." Nor on stress or drowsiness, despite her best efforts. "I'm sure if you just get some rest, it'll clear up."

Akko let out a long sigh. Diana couldn't help but feel disappointed in herself, regardless of how logical it was. But then, she also couldn't help but notice how much their pace began to crawl. Akko was walking like she had weights around her ankles. She was clearly downplaying how much it was affecting her, but to what degree?

Akko suddenly stopped, and propped herself up against a wall. She staggered off-balance, and struggled to shake off her dizziness. "W-whoa…h-hang on…" She murmured. "Ev'rything's all…wonky…"

Diana huffed. Of course she'd be stubborn about this. What _wasn't_ she stubborn about? "Okay, be honest with me. If you're feeling sick, just tell me so I can help you."

Akko waved her hand. "No, just dizzy, I guess…what's that…ringing?" She looked around for the source of some unheard sound. "S'like a really high pitched…eeeeeeeeeee, or something."

Diana crossed her arms, choosing not to comment on the noise. "…Look, maybe I _should_ get you to the nurse. Something's clearly wrong."

Akko pushed herself off the wall. "N-no no. I'm fine! I'll be fine!" She said, with a forced confidence. She gestured to her wobbly legs. "See? Look I'm standing up…and I'm all…standing…and…it's good…"

And then she collapsed to the floor.

"A-Akko!"

Diana quickly knelt down to her side, doing her best to control her panic. Situations like these were the exact reason she trained so hard to keep her emotions in check. Akko was face-down on the floor, so the first thing to do was turn her over and make sure she can breathe as easy as possible. She was awake, thankfully, but only just. A sickly groan escaped her lips. Beyond her overly pale complexion, there was nothing visibly wrong with her, so whatever had caused her to collapse must be related to her sudden (and apparently reoccurring) headache. There was still no clear cause of it, but regardless, she wasn't going to get up on her own anytime soon.

Diana quickly threw Akko's arm around her shoulder, hoisting the girl to her feet. It took most of her willpower not to dwell on how limply Akko clung to her. Taking a calming breath, Diana considered her options. The nurse was halfway across campus, and she didn't have the strength to drag Akko all the way there on her own, especially if she completely lost consciousness.

So she'd continue to the Red Team's room. They were only a few turns away, and there was no way she could leave Akko's side without having her somewhere safe, with someone watching over her. Once she wasn't in such immediate risk, then Diana could better assess what was wrong and how to help her. Diana gave her hand a light squeeze to get her attention.

"I'm going to take you to your room, okay?" She said, as evenly as she could. "…If you can, tell me what you need. Just…say something, please."

"Nn…m'good…" Akko slurred out. "…fall down lotta…times…"

Right. That would have to do for now. It took long ten minutes to get to the room, not helped by how much Akko ended up dragging her feet. She only stayed awake enough to continue rubbing her head. Diana didn't let herself think about it. Not until they could get inside. She knocked on the door, hoping she wouldn't have to go to her own room and risk Akko getting worse.

Lotte and Sucy were both home, thankfully, and after a few panicked questions Lotte helped her lay Akko down on her bed. Diana was almost thankful for Sucy's nonchalant demeanor. Lotte's fretting, while admirable, was not helping her think clearly. Akko had sunken into her bedsheets with another weary groan, which meant Diana only had the other two for her questions.

"So." Diana spoke loudly, snapping Lotte and Sucy's attention to her. "She said something about headaches. Do either of you know anything about that?"

Lotte gave a hesitant nod. "Y-yeah, she's been saying she gets them whenever she wakes up…a-and that they just start and stop a lot for a while…"

"Any idea what's causing them?"

"Not really." Lotte shrugged helplessly. "Some days she never mentions them, and then some days she says she'll have a lot."

Diana felt her brows twitch. "Some days? Exactly how long have these been happening?"

Sucy had sat down on her own bed, absent-mindedly stirring of vial of a substance Diana chose not to dwell on. "She's been complaining about it since a week ago." Sucy explained. "Figured she was just talking like she always does."

"A week ago…" Diana bit the inside of her cheek. Not as long as she feared, but then, the timing of that was somewhat unsettling. Especially with all the other oddities about these headaches that led to her passing out like that. Perhaps it was just her overthinking, again, but something didn't seem entirely natural about it. But before she could think on it further, Akko groaned loudly, squinting in the low light beneath Lotte's bunk.

"Why's everyone…talking so loud?" She moaned. "Brain hurts…"

Diana knelt down to the bedside, making an effort to lower her voice. "You should've told me sooner. What's going on with these headaches? How can I help?"

Akko let out a small sigh. "It's been getting worse and worse…" She admitted. "I…I think I do…need you to go in and fix it."

Diana's brows furrowed. "What do you mean go in?"

"I went in your…brain, right?" Akko said, with a light shrug. "I dunno…fix it. You're the one who's good at…healing stuff."

She wanted her to travel inside her mind? It was hardly a conventional solution, nor was it one she was entirely comfortable doing. "I don't know…are you sure that's the right choice? It's not really…"

Akko cut her off with a curt nod. "Yeah. Something's wrong up there…you're smart and junk. I think you can figure out what's wrong. Just…fix it. I dunno."

Diana _had_ done an amount of research on psychic-melding, but not as much as she would've liked. Definitely not enough to comfortably risk her own safety on, let alone potentially someone else's. But then, Akko sounded sure of herself, and she _did_ do this twice already, with a certain degree of success. Not to mention, the timing of it compared to their last…incident was too close to be coincidental.

Perhaps something _had_ happened when Akko was in her head. Akko deliberately chose not to say much on what happened, and she never mentioned any danger. Rarely did she _ever_ acknowledge the danger she put herself in. So if something had gone wrong when she was in Diana's mind, it would then be Diana's responsibility to correct it.

Sucy sat up from the bed, with the beginnings of a smirk on her face. "This isn't going to be your guys' go-to solution for everything, is it?"

"Obviously not." Diana said flatly. "But something must be done, and all things considered, it does seem to be a possible solution. If it can help her, I'm prepared to do it." She turned to the ailing girl on the bed, figuring she needed to know what she was getting into. "I'm not entirely sure what I'm looking for, however. What can you tell me-?"

Akko had already passed out again. Of course she had.

With a quieted huff, she pulled over a desk chair to sit next to the bed. A considerable part of herself was advising against this idea, but she ignored it. Regardless of the danger, she owed it to her. And she was still a Cavendish after all. New waters or not, she was not raised to succumb to doubt. She was raised to face her problems logically, and she would approach this field of magic with the same dignity and rationality she did all fields she dealt with.

She closed her eyes, and situated herself on the chair, crossing her arms. She was going to be sitting here a while, she supposed. She wasn't entirely sure what to expect with this entire thing, but regardless, she gave the go-ahead to Lotte and Sucy to send her in. She could handle whatever she could find.

"Um…okay, I guess." Lotte said from behind her. "I, um…guess I'll do the spell then?"

"No, _I'll_ do it, Lotte." Sucy said. "It would be my honor to perform this spell on Diana."

* * *

One not so gentle spell later, Diana supposed she had begun her first foray into mind-melding.

Before she even opened her eyes, she was struck by a…peculiar feeling in her head. She bit back a moan as she rubbed her temples. There was a disconnect here that was hard to describe. Like her mind was awake while her body was somehow not. A little like a lucid dream, but more…out of body, in a way. It was incredibly disorientating.

A familiar voice snapped her out her stupor. "Whoa, you're really weird looking! More of a good weird than a bad weird, but I don't think I've ever seen a persona that looked like you! Are you new here? Who are you? What are you supposed to be anyway?"

Diana cracked her eyes open. "…Akko?"

But the person standing before her…didn't _seem_ to be the same Akko. Instead of her school uniform, she was now inexplicably in jeans and a grey hoodie. There were two lines of text sewn across the chest. One in Japanese she couldn't read, and one below in English, that read " _Talkative_ ". She couldn't exactly tell what the shirt was meant to convey, nor how she was now standing up again with a bright smile compared to how she had been only minutes before.

The other girl barked out a laugh. "Aw, why are you just calling me Akko? That's just weird when you think about it! I'm Atsuko Who Is Talkative, but everyone calls me Talkative Akko! Who are you anyway? I already asked, but you didn't say anything. You just looked at me funny. How come you look so funny? I've never seen an Atsuko who had a face and hair and other stuff like yours!"

"A-Atsuko who is…what?" Diana murmured. "What's going…?" She shifted on her feet. And since when was she standing? She looked downward, confirming that the chair she had been sitting on and the wood floor of the Red Team's room were gone, replaced with…green grass?

Her eyes snapped upwards at her new surroundings. The only similarity with the world she had just been in was the darkening evening sky. But now she was in…some sort of fair? Festival? Large wooden booths and attractions were set up as far as she could see. Brightly colored tents stood tall, and a giant Ferris wheel was in the distance, with neon lights shining in the air. It was all ridiculously bright and colorful.

But even _more_ bizarrely, in a moment already full of bizarre nonsense, the fair was filled with copies of Akko, freely walking around and interacting with the various attractions. Some dressed in strange and elaborate outfits, some in similar grey hoodies, some colored in unnatural hues, but just…dozens upon dozens of copies of this one girl. And the part of Diana that was still a teenager was severely unsure how to deal with it.

Diana shook her head in disbelief. "What is this?"

"Oh yeah!" The strange Akko said. "It's a festival today! Don't know why, but that's just how it is! Anyway you never told me your name, but you don't really look like any of the other Atsukos here. You're kinda like a gross mutant Atsuko, but you don't look gross at all. You look really pretty actually! And you don't talk much either. You're just squinting at everything. Is everything okay, Pretty Looking Mutant Atsuko?"

"…what _is_ this?"

Diana took a number of hesitant steps back, trying in vain to process all of…this. In one moment she had been in a quiet room. Now she was in this mess of colors and lights in some strange landscape, with so many copies of Akko everywhere in sight, including this one just babbling nonstop, all demanding attention away from the still inexplicable sensation in her head this psychic melding caused in the first place. It was just…too much, all at once.

Suddenly, she backed into something, and a sharp gasp escaped her lips. She turned around to be met with yet another copy of Akko, but dressed like a police officer of all things. There was Japanese text written on her badge and nametag. She could do little but gawk as the Officer irritably turned around to glare.

"Hey, who's bumping into-?" The Officer paused to look over her. "…Whoa. What kinda Atsuko are _you_ supposed to be?"

"I…what?"

"Well?" The Officer crossed her arms. "You just gonna stand there, or are you gonna say something?"

The criticism cut through her confusion. Diana mentally reprimanded herself. Honestly, what was she doing? Hadn't she _just_ decided that she would maintain her composure better around this girl? Granted, these eccentric circumstances were off-putting, but she wasn't stupid, and she knew better than to act as such. A simple, concise explanation should clear up any confusion and make this ordeal much easier.

Diana cleared her throat into her fist. "…My apologies. I'm simply a little dazed at the moment. I'm not supposed to truly be here, and I must admit, I'm rather lost. I didn't mean to bump-"

The Officer held up a hand, with a surprised look on her face. "Wait, hold up. You're just saying you're not supposed to be here? Just like that?"

Diana blinked. "Yes? That's the truth, after all."

"And you're just confessing to that? Not even gonna argue it?"

"Why would I-?" Diana tilted her head. "Look, I'm merely disoriented right now. If you could perhaps direct me to-"

She was interrupted when she felt something cold and metal click around her wrists. When she looked down, the Officer Akko was restraining her with a pleased smile. Diana pursed her lips. "…Pardon my confusion, but is there a…particular reason you're handcuffing me?"

"It's just standard procedure." The Officer explained. "I know you willingly confessed and everything, so we can skip the trial, but it's just what we're supposed to do to bad thoughts."

"I…I don't…" Diana squinted in her confusion. "Trial? Bad thoughts?"

The Officer lightly shrugged. "Yep. That's my job after all! I bring the bad thoughts to Judge Akko for trial, and then I bring the ones that aren't supposed to be here to their execution."

" _Execution?_ " Diana's eyes widened. Did they mean execute in the sense of-? But that…no, she was letting her emotions get the better of her again. She was just overthinking things again. No one was seriously considering killing anyone. A chuckle escaped her throat, one more apprehensive than she would've liked, but one nonetheless.

"This…this is a joke, right? Surely you remember _me_. You couldn't possibly be considering something so…so ridiculous."

Surely it had to be. Didn't it? For what little she knew about the machinations of the human mind, she _did_ know Akko. And this was her mind. Surely the bizarre little versions of her within her head were enough of a part of her to not behave so irrationally. And they wouldn't be so hostile towards her in particular, not when Akko treated her the way she did.

From behind them, Talkative Akko cheerfully waved. "Goodbye, Pretty Looking Mutant Atsuko! It was nice to meet you, even though you didn't really say anything and we didn't actually talk at all! Sorry you got the catapult!"

Diana paled. "…catapult…?"

The Officer solemnly nodded. "It's one of the tougher parts of the job. The thing is, it's kinda sad to kill off thoughts, even when we know they're bad. We don't really _like_ to see it happen."

"Right." Diana agreed, breathing a sigh of relief. "Of course you don't. I know you, Akko, you wouldn't-"

She was interrupted again by the Officer's bright smile. "So we just catapult them into a never-ending abyss on the edge of the mind, so that way, we don't have to see it happen! Smart, right?"

With that, the Officer grabbed her shoulders and began to lead her away. Diana did what she could to collect herself, to direct her thoughts, quell her outburst at this turn of events inside this strange new world. And despite herself, she could only let loose a single, all consuming thought.

"…W-what is this?!"

* * *

 _A.N. Diana is a much more serious and accomplished character, so it only takes her 1 chapter to face execution vs Akko's 3! As expected of Diana Cavendish!_

 _It took me a while to think of a plotline I liked, that would be both new and in-tone with MindFull, but I think I found something that speaks to me. Akko's mind is going to play by much different rules than both Sucy and Diana's, for reasons that won't be entirely explicit. I wanted to do something that might also change the first one is read, along with characterizing both our leads in interesting ways again since they're past the "will they won't they" stage._

 _I also have a tumblr now, if you ever wanna talk to me or whatever. I won't post any spoilers, but I'll talk about these stories if I'm ever on. You can find me at platinumsupa dot tumblr dot com. Apparently the site doesn't let you post URLS, which I didn't know, so sorry!_


	2. So a Blonde Walks into a Bar

Diana really hated feeling confused.

The Officer, whatever strange creature she was, cheerily talked at her about mental defenses and preservation and how it's a tough job but someone's gotta do it, as she led the stunned mind-traveler to a large wooden fence that bordered the fairgrounds. A medieval styled catapult was set up in front and aimed at, quite literally, nothing. From between the planks of wood, Diana could just see beyond the fence where there was only an endless black void, one the Officer intended to launch her into.

Diana was very confused.

"You…you can't be serious with this!" She said to the Officer. "You, of all people, cannot seriously intend to…put me in a _catapult_."

The Officer just gave a strained, lopsided smile. "Hey, I don't make the rules! That's just the job! Besides you said you weren't an Atsuko who was supposed to be here, so what am I supposed to do?"

Diana shook her head. "No, I'm _not_ an Atsuko, but you…or the larger part of you, _requested_ that I come in here. You can remember that, right? You know I'm here trying to support you, like you've done for me." Softly, she added, "It's _Diana_. You know that, right?"

The Officer scratched her scalp beneath her hat. "…Okay. Does that mean something?" She shrugged. "What's a Diana?"

"What's a-?" Diana repeated incredulously. "Akko! Snap out of it! It's…it's _me!_ What are you-?!"

The Officer puffed out her cheeks. "Come oooon." She whined. "Call me _Officer_ Akko. I've been here since we were eight! I worked during puberty! I deserve some more respect!"

The Officer reached out to grab her, and Diana leaned away, mind racing to think of some rational explanation. Obviously this doppelganger wasn't the real Akko, but why didn't she retain any of her memories? Did _none_ of them recall who Diana was to them or what she looked like? How was she supposed to help Akko, repay all her kindness, if she was in this over her head only minutes into this ordeal? Assuming she even _survives_ it.

But before the Officer could get any closer to her, a small creature flew in between the two. It was a strange little…imp, bearing Akko's face. It wore a white robe, and had a halo floating just above its head. It looked like a shoulder-sized angel.

"Hold on a second, Officer Akko!" Angel Akko said, clasping her little hands together in a prayer. "I need to distract you for a minute!"

Distract her?

"Distract me?" The Officer repeated. "That doesn't seem like your usual job. You're supposed to help us make good choices, and this is what the Original says I'm supposed to do!"

"I think distracting you is a good choice!" The Angel said. "Besides, it seems like a fun thing to do, so I wanna do it!"

And then suddenly, another little imp thing materialized, dressed in a dark red robe with devil horns protruding from her hair. If the other was Akko's shoulder Angel, then this must be her Shoulder devil. She flipped back her high-collared cape and leveled both Diana and the Officer a devious smirk.

"You think _that's_ distracting?" Devil Akko challenged the Officer. "Check _this_ out!" She proceeded to do a backflip, which might've been impressive had she not been flying.

The Officer was impressed regardless. "Whooaaa! That's amazing!" She said, totally captivated. "Do it again!"

"You wanna see me do it again?" The Devil beamed.

"Yeah!"

"Then no!"

"What?!" The Officer gawked. "Come on! Do it again!"

"Yeah, come on!" The Angel said. "I missed it the first time!"

What a confusing moral center.

Diana was really getting sick of not knowing what was happening, but these creatures were giving her an opportunity, and she couldn't overlook it. This was likely her only chance to escape...whatever all this nonsense was. As the Officer and the little creatures talked, Diana took a few light steps back, careful not to make a noise. She kept her eyes glued on the Officer, whose full attention was still captured by the two. Once Diana was reasonably out of earshot, she turned fully and darted around the corner. She ran blindly, looking for a place to hide, before ducking into a dark alley between two of the festival booths.

She held her breath, straining to hear the Officer over the ambiance of the fair. She couldn't _hear_ anyone in pursuit, but she waited nonetheless. After a few minutes, she finally let herself breathe easier. She had gotten away. That was one problem solved. Now that she was (relatively) safe, she glared down at her restrained hands, and gave a few experimental tugs.

These handcuffs were as solid as the real thing. No matter how much she pulled, she couldn't break free. Brute force wasn't going to get her anywhere, but Diana was a witch by trade. She didn't _need_ brute force. She was fairly certain she knew a spell or two to get her out of this. She twisted herself, trying to reach her hip with her hands chained together in front of her. It was awkward, but eventually she reached where her wand was clipped to her belt…only to find empty space. Craning her neck, she looked down at her belt.

Her wand was gone. But she definitely had it back in the real world. It seemed like it had simply not come with her. Great. Wasn't that just _perfect_. One more problem she couldn't seem to solve on her own. Between this and Faiwu incapacitating her last week, she was beginning to feel more like a damsel in distress than the competent person she strived to be.

Not for the first time since she got here, Diana huffed. She needed to find a way out of this. She closed her eyes, assessing her situation. Akko was counting on her, but the two copies of her she had met didn't seem to recall that, nor even Diana herself. But the three besides the Officer seemed…relatively friendly. She wasn't entirely sure what it all meant, but it was giving her something of a baseline. She just needed to find a solution to her immediate problem. And when she opened her eyes, her hands were suddenly free.

"What in the-?"

The handcuffs were gone. Just like that. She supposed she shouldn't look a gift-horse in the mouth…but it made no sense. She hadn't done anything to unlock them, and she hadn't seen them fade away. They simply just stopped existing. Where had they gone? She looked down at the floor, half-expecting to see them laying in the grass. But she saw was…cement? Her eyes snapped up.

She was now standing in the corner of some sort of nightclub.

But…how? How did she…? What happened to the fair? She turned around, but behind her back was the corner of two solid walls. No doors, no openings, there weren't even visible chips in the paint. The alley between the two booths she had _just_ been in was nowhere to be seen. The world had simply shifted from right below her feet. Was this some byproduct of whatever was causing these headaches?

She turned back to look over her new surroundings. The nightclub was still open and colorful, and full of doppelgangers, but now with the addition of loud electronic music. It was some bubbly pop song with a lot of autotune and foreign lyrics. It was irritating. She spared a glance to the DJ booth on the far side of the darkened room.

The electronic floor panels lit up in different colors to the beat. Neon colored spotlights roamed the club from the ceiling. Some of the Akkos were…dancing, ostensibly, clearly just having a good time. Whatever had just happened to this mindscape, they were certainly taking it in stride. But what in the world _had_ happened? How had everything just changed like that?

From her shoulder, a sudden voice sounded. "You seem confused!"

An undignified yelp escaped Diana. Her head whipped over, staring wide-eyed at the Angel now casually kicking her feet on her shoulder. The Angel happily waved. "I saw you talking to Talkative Akko before you got arrested! You looked neat, so I was curious and I wanted to see what kinda thing you were! Your name is Pretty Looking Mutant Atsuko, right?"

"What?" Diana bristled at the ridiculous nickname. "No. That's not my-"

And then the Devil appeared on her other shoulder. "Oh hey!" She smiled brightly at Diana, baring pointed fangs. "So _this_ is the weird looking lady you wanted to help! I was just telling people about her, but she looks real different up close!"

Okay, so, they didn't recognize her. She had met four of these people now, and none of them had been able to identify her. That was apparently one of the rules of how this place worked. Fine. _Fine._ With how unpredictable psychic-melding could be, she supposed she should latch onto whatever ridiculous internal logic she could get. In that case, she was being dismissive to total strangers. She straightened herself out before turning to address the two.

"Thank you both…for helping me before." Diana said honestly. "I appreciate you lending me a hand. I'm afraid I still haven't quite found my footing in this place yet."

"Of course! It's no problem!" The Angel laughed. "It's the right thing to do, probably! I'm not even sure, but you seemed like a nice person to help!"

The Devil nodded. "I'll take your word for it, but she's fun looking!" She peered closer at Diana. "You've got a rocking bod!"

The blood rushed to Diana's face. "E-ex _cuse_ me?"

"It means you're physically attractive!" Devil explained, as though that was what she was asking. "That's what I said, Pretty Looking Mutant Atsuko!"

"She also seems really smart!" Angel cut in. "She's got one of them smart person accents, I think! So she's got brains and looks!"

The Devil turned to her companion and nodded vigorously. "Yeah, and her lips look really soft! So does her weird yellowy hair!"

Diana glowered, fighting down her blush. "This is hardly the time for-"

But to her annoyance, the two just kept right on going. The Angel flew from her shoulder to right in front of her face with another light laugh. "Plus, I dunno if she's a bad thing for the mind or not, but it's not like I can just not help people, right? That's what I do!"

The Devil laughed boisterously, joining her in the air. "Yeah! I dunno if she's some bad thing for the mind either, I just helped you free her because it seemed like a fun thing to do, but she _is_ hot!"

Diana pinched the bridge of her nose. "I don't have _time_ for this." Nor did she had the fortitude, but she chose to keep that to herself. "Look, right now, I'm in the middle of something extremely important, both to me and someone close to me. I really don't need any more distractions, unless either of you can tell me what just happened in…here…?"

When she looked back up, the two of them had already left. Though, whether they had flown away or suddenly disappeared just as the fairgrounds had, she _really_ couldn't say. So she just huffed. Again. She needed to figure out how she got here, how she could get out, and how to fix this entire mess. With little other option, Diana decided to look for information elsewhere.

She kept to the sides of the room, avoiding the crowded dance floor. She was already struggling to accept seeing so many versions of Akko at once, but seeing them up close was just…weird. Not unpleasant of course, but weird. She _did_ know about the existence of these doppelgangers, and how they generally represented emotional traits, but reading about and actually seeing were two different things entirely.

If only she had read more. She had only looked into psychic-melding as a field of study very briefly, a few hours after she left the Archives. Only enough to grasp the broad concepts with none of the intricacies. She had abandoned it for two reasons. She had realized that a part of her was paranoid about what Akko might've had access to in her mind, and Diana felt like she was going back on her word.

And the other was a disinterest in psychology. Human nature was messy and imperfect, and the more she tried to analyze it, the more it led to questions about herself with difficult and uncomfortable answers. As much as she disliked the lack of control, she figured it was an acceptable loss. So of course her indulgence would come back to bite her.

There were plenty of signs and posters decorating the walls, but again, all the text in here seemed to be in Japanese, so there would be no relying on them for directions or explanations. Diana supposed she should count herself lucky that there was any English in this place at all. She considered picking up Japanese at one point, but found it…difficult to justify.

It only made a little difference. With such minimal experience with this mind-traveling, she wasn't entirely sure where she should be heading in the first place. Her tentative goal right now was to find the Core of the consciousness. She knew enough to understand that, as the center from which the entire mindscape stemmed, it was a place of vital importance, and if nothing else she was likely to find some clue there on what she _should_ be looking for and how that shift from fairgrounds to nightclub happened.

She ended up meandering to the bar in the adjacent room, largely because the music was quieter. There were plenty of the strange mind-doppelgangers sitting and gossiping at the tables spread around, and Diana could hear the occasional "Yay" sound out.

Though, Diana found herself focusing on the bartender. It was, unsurprisingly, another Akko, but wearing a sharp black bow tie and vest (which she actually looked quite nice in. Quite nice indeed.) and was cleaning a glass mug. As she approached the bar, the bartender gave her a friendly smile, before putting the cup down and adjusting her rolled up sleeves. (And that touch of casualness mixed with the formal look? What a look on her.)

"Want any Cerebrospinal Juice?" The bartender asked, offering the cup to her. "We got the cherry flavor today."

"…I'll pass." Diana's eyes snapped back up to the bartender's face, (And honestly Diana, what are you doing? Focus.) just as she began cleaning the mug once more. "You don't seem all that distressed about this shift."

"Shift?" The bartender repeated, somewhat bewildered.

Diana nodded. "Yes, you noticed that, right? This place was a fair only a few minutes ago, and now it's…this." She gestured the chaotic dance party in the room over. "Doesn't that mean something to you?"

The bartender stared at her a long moment, before she gasped in realization. "Oh! You're a new Atsuko, aren't you?" She smiled brightly. "Yep, this place just changes a lot. We were in a festival for a pretty long time today, not surprised it finally changed again. Sometimes it stays the same for a while, but sometimes we go through a bunch of different environments real fast. It's nothing to worry about!"

Diana tilted her head. "Wait, how long have these shifts been occurring?"

The bartender tapped her chin. "Uh…I dunno, actually." She admitted. "I don't remember it ever _not_ being like this, so…a lot of years I guess. It's just what it is."

"Years…? These changes are…normal behavior? But…how in the world does anyone find their way around this place?"

The bartender shrugged. "Eh, makes it hard for the right emotions to get to the Original sometimes, but you get used to it. Just stay loose, have fun, you'll figure it out after a while."

"But that doesn't…" Diana began, before stopping herself with a sigh. "…I see. Thank you for the advice."

This didn't seem right. In what little research she had done, she never heard about anything like this constant shifting. She understood that mindscapes did not, in general, obey the laws of physics or reason. They could range from benign and realistic buildings to surrealist landscapes that would make Escher double take, and could even contain both. The book described a scenario of opening a closet in a mental suburban home and finding an entire city block on the inside.

But the book also emphasized that the internal logic of a healthy human mind was consistent unto itself. The mindscape's appearance may change from 'room' to 'room,' but A was always A while B was always B. If the surface of the mindscape looked like a fair, then it _should_ always be a fair. Maybe Diana hadn't read enough, but there hadn't even been a footnote about minds being able to completely change appearance like this.

This shifting definitely seemed abnormal, but it was apparently happening long before these headaches started. But what did that mean for Akko? And (debatably) more pressingly, how was she going to able to find her way around and help the girl if the world around her could change at a moment's notice?

The Devil spoke from her left shoulder. "Boy, you really sweat the details, huh?"

Diana was ashamed to say she jumped once more. She was _really_ having difficulty handling surprises at the moment. Once she caught her breath, she glared at the imp. "This isn't going a reoccurring problem with you, is it?"

The Devil laughed to herself. "Maybe! I got no idea what you're talking about anyway!" She lifted herself from Diana's shoulder. "Anyway, since you're still all confused, I bet _I_ could tell you a thing or two! It'd be fun for me, there's never been anyone for me to give tours to!"

"I…suppose I could use some more information." Diana said begrudgingly. "I'm still rather lost."

"So you already met Altruistic Akko there!" The Devil said, gesturing to the bartender. "And you see that table over there? That's Sociable Akko, and _that's_ Friendly Akko!" She pointed to a table across the bar, where the two sat gossiping. One of them was wearing a dark leather jacket and sunglasses, leaning back confidently, the other dressed much like a tourist with a Hawaiian shirt, short-shorts and a backwards cap.

Diana's brows furrowed. Weren't Altruistic and Friendly, more or less, the same thing? And the same with Sociable and Talkative, there would be only minor differences there. Surely it would be more efficient to have just one emotion encapsulate all those duties, to prevent any overlap and confusion. Though, what did she know? Perhaps having so many redundancies was what allowed Akko to form friendships so easily.

The Devil tapped her chin. "Let's see who else in here…" She directed Diana's attention to various constructs across the room. "There's Fangirl Akko, Cat Lady Akko, Atsuko Who gets way too into Funk, she's new, Atsuko Who gets way too into Pop, she's been here a while, and oh, there's Communist Akko right next to you. Say hi, Communist Akko!"

Diana glanced to her right. Sitting next to her at the bar was another doppelganger dressed in all red. She, Communist Akko apparently, glanced over Diana's form before eying her somewhat suspiciously. "You're not Bourgeois, are you?"

Diana crossed her arms, raising a single brow. "Do you actually know that word means?"

The other girl narrowed her eyes, looking like she really wanted to say something. Eventually, she decided to simply turn back to her drink, quietly muttering under her breath. "…seize the means of production…"

Diana allowed herself a small smile before turning back to the Devil. "Look, I appreciate the introductions, but what I could _really_ use is directions."

The Devil looked quite surprised. "Wait, am I being annoying?"

Diana shook her head. "It's not so much…I'd…prefer more _concise_ information, if possible. This isn't really relevant to me."

The Devil smiled…and then went right back to introducing people around the bar. Diana just bit back a groan. These people were getting her nowhere. "So! I already went over that table, so over there is Lovely Akko, Athletic Akko, and Atsuko Who is Honest. She doesn't like nicknames, so don't call her anything but that."

Diana's eyes snapped up. Who is Honest? Perhaps that was someone who might actually be able to help her. She could use some straight answers right about now, ones she didn't seem to be getting from anyone else here. Loathe as she was to have to keep relying on help, over and over, she knew she couldn't risk Akko's safety on her own pride.

"Hold that thought for just a moment." Diana said to the Devil. "I need to talk to her."

Atsuko Who is Honest was dressed like the figure of Lady Justice. She had on a long white toga, and a matching blindfold wrapped around her head. She didn't have the sword (a shame) nor did she have the scale, but the imagery was still clear.

Diana approached her table with a polite smile. "Sorry to bother you, miss, but I was wondering if perhaps you could help me. You see, I'm in a bit of an…inconvenient position, and I-"

Honest Akko suddenly stood from the table. "Aha! Say no more! I know all about inconvenient truths, let me tell you!" She cleared her throat, preparing to dispense her wisdom. "For example, our first crush was on Shiny Chariot."

Of course it was. Diana almost rolled her eyes despite herself. "My apologies, but I really don't need to know that sort of-"

Honest Akko, however, continued without paying her much thought. "But for a while, we thought of Professor Ursula as being kinda like our mom."

"…oh."

"It got weird."

"I _really_ do not need to know this."

"It's still kinda weird when we think about it."

"I cannot emphasize enough how much I do not need to know this." Diana shook the thoughts from her head, before speaking as unambiguously as possible. "I'm searching for the Original right now. It's of vital importance. Can you direct me to her?"

"Ah, yes!" She smiled. "The Original lives in the Core! So if you want to find her, you just need to find the Core."

"Right." Diana said flatly. "And where is the Core?"

"Where the Original lives."

Diana's eyes narrowed dangerously. "…Are you kidding me?"

"What? It's the truth!" Honest Akko held up her hands defensively. "The Original lives in the Core! It's not like _I_ can lie to you! It's literally impossible for me!"

Wonderful. She was left with no more answers than what she started with. It wasn't anyone's fault but her own, and she was hardly willing to be unnecessarily rude to any version of Akko. She nodded respectfully to the girl in the toga and blindfold. "Thank you for your time."

She looked to her left shoulder where the Devil had been. "I don't suppose _you_ can-?"

The Devil was gone. Again. And a glance at the right shoulder revealed the Angel was nowhere to be seen as well. Again. She was now completely without direction, and left with a burning desire to actually do right with absolutely no means of doing so. So she was completely useless. With a long sigh, Diana planted her hands on her hips.

"I swear, what this girl does to me…" She muttered to herself. "I need to get back to the real world before I get an aneurysm."

She felt a light tapping on her shoulder, and turned, half hoping to see one the two imps suddenly manifesting themselves. Instead, it was another Akko, wearing the same generic grey hoodie as the…Talkative girl had been, with the same two lines of text embroidered on the chest. She couldn't speak for how different the Japanese characters were, but the line below it now read " _Lovely._ "

"Did you just say you're from the real world?" She asked. "Did I hear that right?"

"Yes, you did." Diana said. "Can I…help you?"

The girl let out an amazed cheer, in a cutesy way that reminded Diana of the real Akko. "Wow! I can't believe it! The real world!" She held out her hand. "I'm Atsuko Who is in love with Diana! You can just call me Lovely Akko or something if it's easier!"

Diana's brows shot up. "W-who is in love with…?"

She shouldn't feel _that_ flustered. Akko had asked her out and while she was, for whatever reason, too shy to say it she _had_ made her feelings somewhat clear. It should be unsurprising. But actually hearing her say it aloud, sort of, and in such a strong connotation was enough to make her heart skip a beat.

In love with. Not even Has a crush on, but _In love with_. But no, Diana wouldn't let her feelings get the better of her. She fought down the fluttery feeling in her stomach. She had very important things she should be doing, and _this_ …was definitely a distraction she wouldn't allow herself to engage in. She made a point to clear her throat before she allowed herself to speak again. "I…I see."

"So if you're from the real world, can I ask you a question?" Lovely Akko took a step closer, and Diana found it more and more difficult _not_ to let it get the better of her. The shorter girl bounced on her heels excitedly. What exactly was she going to do? Because if this was the manifestation of Akko's literal feelings for her, then the next words out of her mouth could be... "Have you ever met someone named Diana? Diana Cavendish?"

Diana stared at her for a long moment.

"Well, Pretty Looking Mutant Atsuko?" Lovely Akko asked, somewhat impatiently. "Have you ever met her?"

"…I'm familiar with her, yes."

* * *

 _A.N. Between this and title, it seems like I'm making fun of Akko. But it was established last time 'round that the Dianas couldn't actually recognize faces. Just names. So just for fun, I'm just taking that tidbit to the final level. And the title potentially ends up meaning something else later on…_

 _…But yeah, it's mostly making fun of Akko._

 _I'm glad a couple of you caught the fact there's a lot of English in this Japanese mind. Believe it or not, Akko's surprising skill with language is something of a plot beat later on, largely because for being normally so book dumb, it's a fairly fascinating aspect of her character, so I wanted to do something with it. On the other hand, narrative convenience. Logically she should_ default _to Japanese, but it'd be real hard to tell a story if Diana couldn't understand a word of it, so they all speak English._


	3. The World's Least Witting Seduction Pt2

Perhaps it was a derisive way to think about the girl she was dating...but…

Well, there was no beating around the bush. Akko's mind was complete and utter chaos, and Diana was completely and utterly lost. In one sense, literal. The mindscape had the capacity, and apparently the reoccurring tendency, to change its layout and appearance for seemingly no reason, which further complicated her already vague goal of finding the Core. All the new information and (literal) emotions being hurled at her left her even more directionless than when she came in. And the metaphorical sense was the fact that she had zero understanding of what in the _hell_ any of this meant.

The only thing keeping her attention off the massive growing headache was the fact that back in the real (and much more sensible) world, Akko had already collapsed from her own. But as worrying as the mysterious circumstances behind her collapsing were, even Diana had her limits for what she could just roll off and tolerate without complaint.

One of those limits then, was Lovely Akko excitedly grabbing her hands, bouncing up and down, and shrieking with joy about the possibility of talking about Diana Cavendish with her. And just as she did with her identity, Lovely Akko missed Diana wincing at the shrill noise.

Diana forced herself to smile. "I understand your excitement…on some level." She admitted wearily. "But…please don't yell. If possible. I'm not sure I can handle many more loud noises at the moment."

"I'm just so excited!" Lovely Akko continued to bounce on her heels, still intimately attached to her hands. "You know Diana, and now we can talk about her! This is so exciting! I've been running out of Akkos to talk to her about!"

"I'd prefer not to."

Lovely Akko stopped bouncing, fortunately, and Diana managed to slip her hands out of the girl's grip as she pouted. "Aww…come on! You said you were familiar with her! You just _gotta_ talk about her with me!"

"Look, I'm sure you can find many other excitable people to talk about...your...crush with. I'm afraid I'm just not much in the mood for conversation right now."

"I mean sure, but I wanna talk about Diana with _you!_ " Lovely Akko pleaded. "I can't really explain it, but I heard you talking to Atsuko Who is Honest, and you seem like a cool person and I think it'd be fun to hang out! Besides, you actually know her! Are you guys really close?"

"That's one word for it." Diana rubbed her forehead. "I just…I need to sit down. This place is sensory overload."

She found an empty booth, a nice and secluded one in the corner, which was fortunate. Most of these doppelgangers were too…she'd be polite and say extroverted, to sit so far away from everyone else. Which worked just fine for Diana's immediate self-indulgence. She justified herself with the fact that the situation would become _infinitely_ worse if she collapsed from exhaustion within Akko's mind, where no one could reasonably get her help. Besides, she only needed a minute or two. She's done more work with less energy.

She sunk into plush seat, in a way she almost never let herself do in view of others. But this was A) Akko, and B) Not even the real Akko, so there was only minimal embarrassment with letting herself be so obviously vulnerable. And the seats were comfy. Comfy is nice. Diana liked nice comfy things.

But of course, Lovely Akko had taken it as an invitation to sit next to her. Diana felt the plush shaking beneath her, and opened her eyes to see Lovely Akko smiling hopefully at her. "You seem real sad! You know what I think about when I wanna feel happy?"

"I'm sure I can guess."

Lovely Akko clasped her hands together. "I think about Diana! She's the greatest!" She bounced in her excitement, once again shaking the seat. "She's got really pretty blonde hair, kinda like yours, Pretty Looking Mutant Atsuko. And she's also got these beautiful blue eyes! Kinda like yours, Pretty Looking Mutant Atsuko."

"Imagine that." After a moment's thought, Diana arched a brow at the girl. "…You truly don't recognize me?"

Lovely Akko tilted her head. "Should I? I mean, aren't you new in here?"

Diana took a moment to think over her answer. "I'm just…curious, I suppose. You really can't recognize my face?"

"I'm still kinda new here, but the Original's usually the one who recognizes real people. Why would we need to? Everyone in here has the exact same face." Lovely Akko pointed to the rest of the Akkos around the club. Aside from the strange outfits, they _were_ all identical.

"I…suppose that makes some sense."

Lovely Akko scratched her chin. "Still though…now that you mention it, there's something… _different_ about you from other Atsukos." She leaned closer. Diana leaned back. "We've only just met, but I feel like I've known you all my life. All seven and a half days of it. You're really cool, in a way not even Atsuko Who is Sociable is, and she's the second coolest person I know besides Diana!"

Well, at least she managed to recognize her on _some_ level, if not consciously. "S-so, you've been here a week?"

Lovely Akko nodded. "I think I used to be a different emotion, before something changed and I split off. Probably when the Original realized how amazing Diana was!" She quickly grabbed Diana's hand once more. "Did you know we actually asked Diana out one time? And guess what she said? Guess! Guess!"

"…she said yes?"

"Nope!" Lovely Akko said cheerfully. "She said, I wouldn't be opposed! Which is almost the same thing, but said in a much more Diana way! Isn't she cute?"

Diana hummed. She _really_ didn't have the energy for this right now. "I don't suppose you can tell me where to find the Core?"

"I dunno." Lovely Akko shrugged. "Everything's pretty unfocused right now, so it's kinda hard to find her when she's not calling for us. I think we're asleep right now?"

Diana jumped when the Angel began to speak from her shoulder. "Yeah we're asleep right now."

Lovely Akko gave an affirmative nod to Diana. "So it turns out we're asleep right now."

Diana brushed the Angel from her shoulder with a light wave of her hand. She did the other shoulder for good measure, and lo and behold, the Devil who had been sitting there joined the Angel on the other side of the table. Diana didn't even bother to hide her annoyance with the imps.

"You two…need to stop doing that."

The Devil blinked at her. "Oh. Alrighty then. Bye." And with that she suddenly disappeared in a burst of blood-red flames.

"Wha-?" Diana sputtered. "I didn't mean stop _existing!_ "

The Angel smiled brightly at her. "You still look real bummed about everything, Pretty Looking Mutant Atsuko." Diana bristled, not that the Angel paid it much mind. "You gotta be more cheerful."

"Please stop calling me that." That nickname was embarrassing, in every sense of the word. "My name is-"

She started, only to glance at Lovely Akko. If that went how she predicted, it would be a distraction she really didn't need, and one she wasn't sure she even wanted right now. "…Never mind. It doesn't matter."

The Angel snapped her fingers. "Hey, I got it! Hold on here just a second, I'll be right back!"

Before she could respond, the Angel had flown away. If nothing else, she hadn't just randomly disappeared when she wasn't looking this time. Not that she had much time to let that settle in. Now that they were alone again, Lovely Akko began to shake Diana's shoulder.

"So you wanna talk about Diana Cavendish some more?" Diana didn't even get a chance to open her mouth before Lovely Akko all but swooned in her seat. "Because she's just the best girlfriend we could ask for! She's funny when she actually tells jokes, and she's really nice to us all the time, and she's like our best friend, but times ten! And I already said she's pretty, right? Because she's really pretty! She looks kinda like you, but even prettier! No offense, though."

"N-none…taken?"

Lovely Akko cooed at her. "Aww! Are you blushing? You look kinda cute when you're blushing!" Her brows furrowed in confusion. "…But I mean, not as cute as Diana though, when _she_ gets all flustery! It's hard, because Diana is so smart and good at everything so there's no way to really catch her that off guard, but she gets even _prettier_ when she gets embarrassed, even more than she always is!"

It's been a long time since such praise made Diana flush. It's been even longer since she had no doubts of its genuineness. Despite herself, she could feel her heart beating in her chest, leaping at the adoring compliments. For how shy romance seemed to make Akko in real life, hearing all this at once filled Diana in a way that was hard to describe. Her eyes fell to her lap, overwhelmed by it all.

But then the warm feeling…faded. And after a moment's thought, was replaced by just bitterness at herself. This Akko was reciprocating the feelings Diana had for her, yet Diana was currently unable to reciprocate the kindness Akko had shown her last week, and many other times before. Here she was, just sitting here completely clueless and blushing like a child. And hearing Akko's voice echoing Diana's own feelings while she failed to echo her competence just made her hollow.

Akko shined in adversity. Diana, it seemed, floundered in it. And unless she could even out the foundation of their relationship, it would only be a matter of time before it collapsed in on itself.

"Yeah…" Lovely Akko sighed dreamily, leaning on her elbows. "Diana is just…the greatest girlfriend in the world…"

Diana shook her head with a melancholic smirk. "I wouldn't be so quick to claim that. I can think of a number of things Diana Cavendish could stand to improve on."

Lovely Akko suddenly grabbed her shoulder, psychically turning her around to glare daggers into her eyes. "You take that back! Don't be mean to Diana! Diana is wonderful just the way she is! And you know what? If she _wanted_ to improve she'd still be wonderful! Just because you're pretty doesn't mean you can act all rude to people like her!"

This was…conflicting. Was she being appraised or assaulted right now?

"I…?" Diana raised her hands in surrender, finding herself buckling against the intense glare being sent her way. "I wasn't being… _mean_ , exactly. I was just…m-making a joke? It wasn't meant as an insult."

"Well it's not funny!" Lovely Akko decided. "Diana's a great person just the way she is! And even if she's not perfect, she's _still_ perfect just the way she is! And don't you forget it!"

"I…agree?" Diana said hesitantly. "D-Diana is…more than acceptable, but I was just…thinking of ways she could be…more…w-wonderful? For…Akko's sake?"

Lovely Akko considered her statement, and for a moment Diana was afraid she had seriously offended the girl by way of self-depreciation. But finally, Lovely Akko eased off. "Fine." She said, crossing her arms. "I guess I can forgive you since you were just making a mistake. And…sorry for yelling. That was harsh, and you didn't deserve it." She furrowed her brows. "…wait, what am I saying? You were mean to Diana, so I shouldn't…wait…should I? Um…?"

Lovely Akko's gaze dropped, and she rubbed her chin in thought. Diana may have sympathized with her confusion if she hadn't found it so ridiculous. That might've been the weirdest argument she's ever had in her life. Nonetheless, she patted the shorter girl's back.

The Angel flew up to their table only minutes later, trailed by two more doppelgangers. One of the Akkos was dressed in her school uniform, but oddly enough, with big round glasses, similar to Lotte's. The other was dressed in another of the generic hoodies that both Lovely and Talkative Akko wore. The text below the Japanese characters read " _Smart_."

The Angel smiled, gesturing to the two guests in a showy, grandiose wave. "This is Atsuko Who is Studious, and that's Atsuko Who is Smart!" She landed on the table, looking quite proud of herself. "You seem like you have questions, and these are smartest people I know, so they can probably answer all of them, Nevermind!"

"That's kind of y- What did you just call me?"

"I just did what you said!" The Angel said helpfully. "Anyway, since you were all confused, I thought I'd get these two to come help out! It was sorta hard to find Studious Akko, but I hope it's worth it!"

"Hey…" Studious Akko pouted. "I know I get lost a lot, but I _do_ work hard! I can study anything if we really _need_ to!"

Smart Akko gave a rather subdued wave. "So what's the question you have?" She asked, with just a hint of excitement in her voice. "You can ask me anything about this place!"

A hundred questions went through her head. There were so many inexplicable things in here, and she wanted to know everything she could about this shifting and what it all meant. But in the end, only one stuck out in her mind as being important enough to ask.

"Just tell me honestly." Diana said, with a slight edge in her voice. "Is…all this something that's hurting Akko?"

Smart Akko looked at her sideways. "Is all of what?"

"The way this entire mind functions." Diana said, glancing once more at the party in the room over. "I don't understand it. This is chaos. Too _much_ chaos. And I know Akko can be…scatterbrained, on occasion, and she does struggle in class, but-"

She was interrupted when someone suddenly slammed her fists down on the table. Communist Akko stood there with an excited smile. "Are you guys talking about class?!"

"Different kind of class." Smart Akko said.

The Red girl deflated. "Maaan…how am I supposed to get good at communism if no one will ever talk about class? No one's ever talked about it since the worker strike months ago!" With a long sigh, she dragged her feet back to the bar. "I'd _pay_ someone to talk about communist stuff…"

Diana barely suppressed a huff as she turned back to the table. "But as I was saying…how is this normal behavior for Akko's mind? All these emotions running rampant, this shifting environment, all of these strange rules…she's distractible, yes, but she's never been _this_ over-the-top."

"Oh, the shifting's no big deal." Smart Akko shrugged. "It can get sort of overwhelming when the Original's asleep or not focusing on anything, and she's been kind of stressed out this past week, but aside from that, this is more or less just how it is."

"So she _can_ focus through this." Diana said hopefully. "This isn't something I need to be immediately concerned about?"

"Well, yeah." Smart Akko nodded. "It's not like the Original just broadcasts all her thoughts. Everyone has filters. And besides, when the Original's awake, it's a bit easier. She's really strong-willed!"

Diana let out a sigh of relief. "…that she is."

All this was still a pretty massive hindrance in her progress, which was already way too slow to begin with, but as long as Akko wasn't being hurt, then she would overcome it. Diana had always found Akko's determination attractive, and she supposed she should take a page from her girlfriend's book if she wanted to ensure they could happily remain as such.

Studious Akko elbowed her. "So are you still confused, or what?"

"Oh, I still have plenty of questions. But none of them are really relevant to what I'm doing." A thought struck her. "Speaking of which, have there been any notable…abnormalities in here this past week? Anything besides me and…Lovely Akko, that wasn't here before, and could potentially be afflicting this mind?"

Smart Akko squinted at her. "Uh…by abnormalities you mean like…weird stuff, right?"

Diana nodded, pushing down a smile. "Yes. Has there been anything weird in this mind that could potentially be causing these headaches?"

"Nothing that I've heard of, no."

Diana racked her brain, recalling every detail she could about the headaches. There was hardly enough information to conduct any sort of investigation on. They were reoccurring, had been getting worse, and they 'come and go.' But she _did_ recall one notable fact about them. "Lotte mentioned the headaches occurring when Akko wakes up…do you know about anything strange happening with this mind's sleeping habits?"

Smart Akko tapped her chin. "You'd maybe want to ask Slothful Akko about it, but I'm pretty sure everything's been normal there. The only thing I heard is we had the falling nightmare again the other night."

Diana's eyes widened. "Falling nightmare?"

Her mind instantly went to the missile crisis, when Akko had fallen from the broom and Diana had been too slow to catch her. She had been saved by the Shooting Star, but Diana recalled having one or two nightmares about it herself. She had found herself, to her embarrassment, watching the girl like a hawk the next few days, just to ease her own anxieties. But Akko barely seemed affected by the danger of the whole experience. She was normally so blasé about it, but perhaps hidden deep inside, she too feared about what might've happened that day if-

Studious Akko averted her eyes. "Yeah, that's the one where our shoes get all soapy and we keep falling over and everyone laughs at us and thinks we're embarrassing."

The doppelgangers all, collectively, shuddered. Diana just stared blankly. It was nice to hear Akko wasn't as affected by it, but she was really starting to feel like this mind was just constantly playing a joke on her. Smart Akko scratched the side of her head. "Least it's not as bad as the ghost nightmare, or the tree nightmare…"

"Wait, the ghost nightmare? What was that one about?"

Perhaps it was related to Faiwu? Diana was still sure something related to the vile spirit was behind these headaches. It had to have left some mark in here, somehow. Perhaps, if something had frightened Akko in that encounter, it had affected her psyche and was making her too restless to-

"That one stinks…" Studious Akko trailed off, clearly uncomfortable recalling it. "In that one we learn how to do an invisibility spell but we forget how to turn it off and everyone forgets where we are and stops talking to us."

"…So the tree nightmare." Diana said flatly. She thought of the Wagandea tree, but pushed it aside. She recognized a pattern when she saw one. "What was _that_ one about? A tree…monster or something?"

"No, that one's about us climbing the Wagandea tree and losing our magic and having to leave our friends at Luna Nova forever."

Diana rubbed the corners of her eyes. "…My mistake then. Apologies for making you recount these." She sighed. "So do any of you know anything that could be related to these headaches, then? I'll take anything I can get at this point."

Studious Akko waved her hand through the air. "Ooh! Wait wait! I think I know something!"

"You…can just talk. You don't need to raise your hand."

Studious Akko looked quite proud to provide information. "So I was studying some of the Memories with Comical Akko not too long ago, and the headaches disappeared for most of Saturday, but then came back _really_ hard on Sunday!"

Diana's brows furrowed. Their date had been on Saturday. It was nice to hear that Akko hadn't been feeling ill when they were together, but was that a coincidence, or did that mean something? The romantic part of her wanted to think that her presence had helped Akko somehow, but no, that was naive. Akko had collapsed right next to her in the hallway, right after complaining her pain was stronger than usual. What was the significance of that?

Studious Akko darted from the booth to find Comical Akko apparently, and the Angel swooped over to Diana with a satisfied smirk. "So did I manage to help you not be so confused?"

Diana flashed a grateful smile to the Angel, more out of a desire to please her than anything as genuine as she would like. "It's helping, at least."

"Not me, though." Lovely Akko spoke up. " _I'm_ still pretty confused. Nevermind is kinda weirding me out."

It took Diana a moment to realize who she was talking about. " _I…_ weird you out?"

"I dunno…" Lovely Akko muttered. "You seem nice…like _really_ nice…like a person I wanna spend time with…but I'm not supposed to wanna spend time with you! I should wanna spend time with Diana. I don't know what this feeling is…"

"…hang in there, I suppose."

The other girl just went right back to staring at the table. Diana shook her head.

Studious Akko slid back into the booth, tailed by another doppelganger. The new one was wearing the exact same generic hoodie as some of the others, including the part of Akko that was in love with her. This one's read " _Comical_."

Despite herself, Diana had to ask about it. "Why do only some of you wear these sweatshirts, while others have more elaborate outfits?"

Smart Akko looked down at her own hoodie. "I don't think anyone knows how it's decided. All I know about it is that sometimes the Original doesn't know how she feels or doesn't concentrate much on how we should look."

Studious Akko agreed. "I never noticed any pattern with it. Some Atsukos get stuff, some Atsukos don't." She gestured to the guest she had brought over. "Hey Comical Akko! This neat-looking lady was confused about our trip up the Memories earlier!"

Comical Akko let out a boisterous laugh. "Oh man, I was _just_ thinking about the one from Monday!"

Excitedly, the girl squeezed herself into the booth, clearing her throat in preparation of a story. Diana wasn't sure how Monday was related to this, but she listened eagerly as Comical Akko began. The girl was already laughing to herself.

"S-so…in the Memory, there's this red haired girl named Amanda, right? A-and-!" She snorted. "And she's talking to this blonde girl named Diana. And Amanda's talking with her about music class, right?"

Wait. She knows _exactly_ what this memory is.

"You don't need to finish this story." Diana said, as neutrally as possible, ignoring the heat rising to her cheeks. "I know what happens."

The laughing girl continued regardless. "And Diana! She says…" She was trying, and thoroughly failing, at keeping a straight face. "S-she says there's no such class here, and-!"

" _Please_ stop talking."

Comical Akko's smile spread even further up her cheeks. "And Amanda asks…so you don't want two CDs? And Diana asks, two CDs? And _then_ Amanda gets this huge grin and she just yells, _To see th_ -!"

Diana slammed her palms on the table, cutting off the sentence before it could be finished. "Yes, yes, enough of this! This humor is completely beneath our age group!" She opened her eyes only enough to glare. "Now what I w _anted_ to know was, do you know anything about what happened with these headaches over the weekend?"

"Oh, I don't know anything about those." Comical Akko looked at her sideways. "Those weren't really that funny."

"No." Diana agreed flatly. "No they weren't."

She pushed herself up from the booth with a weary grunt. She was getting nowhere. She tried to focus on having learned that this nonsensical behavior was normal for Akko's mind and that she now knew Akko's headache had disappeared Saturday night and reappeared in full on Sunday, but the former wasn't relevant and she had no idea what the latter meant.

She gave one last glance to the table. "And none of you know where the Original is right now, is that correct?" Unsurprisingly, she received only headshakes and a few 'no's. "Then I suppose I'll just have to find her myself. Thank you for the answers."

The Angel, once again joined by the Devil, flew in front of her face. "Ooh, can we come?" The Angel asked excitedly. "I like helping!"

"No."

"Aw…" The Angel drooped. "She said no."

The Devil flew up to her with a quizzical look. "Did you just say no?"

"Yes, that's what I said."

"Aha! See! She said yes! That means we can go!"

"No!" Diana snapped. "The answer is _no_. None of you should help me with this. The only thing I needed were directions. And I work much better at my own pace anyway."

She turned on her heels, in a way that was perhaps more haughty than she intended. She would just need to explore around for the Core. There _had_ to be something there. If not an answer, then a clue. And if she wanted to be able to help Akko, and prove she was actually competent enough to do so, she just needed to find it on her own.

She had only taken a few steps before the metal leg of a chair she hadn't seen caught on her foot. She fell face forward, sending the chair and herself tumbling to the floor. Her hands flailed to catch herself on the nearest object before she hit the ground. She grabbed the edge of a table, only to press too hard and flip the entire thing on top of herself.

Diana quickly pushed herself from the pile, her face red-hot. She had _never_ tripped like that in her entire life. And she had done it in front of _Akko_. But before she could even attempt to stutter out an explanation in her defense, she noticed the mindscape had shifted once more.

"I-is this a…fast food place…?"

That had explained why she hadn't seen the chair. The plush bar booth had been replaced with a cheap table with plastic rims. And the dark nightclub had become a harshly lit eatery that smelled like grease. Altruistic Akko, who had been tending the bar, was now behind the cash register. Still in her formal attire.

Comical Akko let out an excited giggle. "Ooh! I could go for some grey-matter nuggets!"

Diana watched as the girl darted off, adding how poorly timed that all was to the growing list of embarrassing things weighing down on her right now. She struggled to meet Lovely Akko's gaze as the girl stood from the table and, strangely nervously, made her way over.

"Are you okay, Nevermind?"

"…Physically? Yes."

"That's…that's good." Lovely Akko took a moment to help her pick up the table and chair. "Anyway, I think I should help you find the Original!"

Diana sighed. "Look, I appreciate the gesture, I do. But this is something I _need_ to be able to do on my own. Because if I can't, then I don't-"

Lovely Akko clasped her hands together. "No, I think I _need_ to see the Original too! I think I-!" She stopped, to make sure no one else was listening, before she whispered. "I think I'm getting sick."

"But you're just a personification of an emotion. How can you get si-"

Lovely Akko quickly pressed a hand to Diana's mouth, her eyes snapping back to the table where the other Akkos sat. "Don't say it too loud!" She said in a harsh whisper. "If an Officer hears, I might get in trouble! I might even…! Just…you can't say it out loud, alright? Please!"

Diana pulled the girl's hand off her face. Her stomach turned at the scared expression on Lovely Akko's face. Maybe it wasn't the real Akko, but it was still a part of her, and seeing _any_ version of her so visibly frightened was almost disturbing. "J-just calm down, alright? Try to tell me what's wrong."

"I am, but I'm just-!" Lovely Akko shifted on her feet. "I'm…I'm really scared! I think…I think I…!"

"Yes?" Diana tried to keep the edge out of her voice. "I promise I won't tell anyone, but I can't do anything to help you unless you tell me what's wrong."

"I'm supposed to be attracted to Diana…" Lovely Akko's lip quivered. "But I think I'm becoming attracted to _you!_ " The girl apprehensively watched for her reaction. Diana stared back for a long moment, letting the words wash over her. Once they finally registered, she buried her face in her palm with a weary groan.

"Oh, for the love of…"

"That's exactly it!" Lovely Akko panicked. "I think I'm…I'm falling in love with you, but I'm _supposed_ to be in love with Diana! I think there's something wrong with me!"

There was an easy solution to this problem that Diana found herself unwilling to go for, no matter how illogical it was. Not only would it be both distracting and potentially time-consuming to have to drag a lovesick girl around, but Diana was still pretty sure hearing Akko sing her praises at the moment would just sting her ears. She didn't want to hear it, unless she could actually _earn_ it.

"Calm down." Diana hushed Lovely Akko. "You don't need to go to the Original, because there's nothing wrong with you right now. I guarantee your problem will be solved once I leave. Once I help this mind and get back to the real world, you can go right back to…caring for Diana."

"But how can you be so sure?" Lovely Akko asked. "I mean…I don't even _wanna_ see you leave, but I don't know why!"

"Just…trust me. It would be best if you stayed here. Your confusion will be cleared up much faster. After all, _I'm_ the one confusing you, so traveling with me will only compound the issue."

"I…I guess that makes sense…" Lovely Akko quietly admitted. With a few last words of encouragement, Diana turned, picking a direction to explore. She had only taken a few steps before Lovely Akko called out to her. "Just um…make sure the Original knows I still really love Diana, okay? I'm just a bit…loopy right now, that's all."

Diana turned back to look at her expression, and in instant went any objective judgement she had left. She was pretty sure the best solution to this would be to just leave Lovely Akko here, but no matter how she tried to justify it, the sad look on Akko's face killed any argument she could come with. She could not, in any good conscience for any good reason, leave Akko's side when she had that expression. Against her better judgement, she walked over.

Diana set a hand on Lovely Akko's shoulder. "I promise you there's nothing wrong, but if it'll help you stop worrying, then fine." She gave the girl a reassuring smile. "You can come with me."

Lovely Akko stared at her a moment, before a grateful smile spread up her features. Diana felt a flush of relief as Lovely Akko threw her arms around her shoulders and squeezed her tightly.

"Thank you so much!" Lovely Akko cried. "I won't forget this!"

Diana patted her back. "…yes. Now…please let go of me."

Lovely Akko pouted for a fraction of a second, then quickly realized who she was embracing. "Augh! I shouldn't be hugging you!" She jumped back in a blind panic. "C'mon! We gotta find the Original fast!"

And before either could say much else, Lovely Akko had grabbed her hand and began running, practically dragging Diana along. If nothing else, at least her progress wouldn't be slow. She supposed it was hardly unpleasant company to have, even if it left her feeling conflicted. But then, Akko had been leaving her feeling conflicted and making uncharacteristic choices for quite a while now. She supposed there was nothing to be done about it. As she tried to match Lovely Akko's pace, a wry smile decorated her face.

This girl really had a way of messing with her head, didn't she?

* * *

 _A.N. I mean, I had to have some sort of twist to make Atsuko Who is in Love with Diana different than Rose, and somehow, this felt right. Besides, Akko's the one who goes for nicknames anyway, so of course her mind's gonna immediately assign one to poor clueless Diana._

 _So most people who took a stab at it have already guessed the reason why Akko's mind is the way it is, but I did say it wouldn't be explicitly confirmed. It's a pretty common headcanon anyway, and it made for an interesting layer to the real conflict between Diana and Akko in the story._

 _And this story actually got fanart! Of everyone's favorite, Communist Akko! Please check out Red42's tumblr for the original pic! It's fantastic!_


	4. Core Strength

Diana cracked open yet another door, hoping against hope that _this_ one would finally be the Core and her aimless searching would end. But she instead found yet another room full of mental Akkos that _weren't_ the Original. Inside there was a large crowd eagerly gathered before a stage, upon which an Akko in an astronaut suit adjusted the microphone. In the doorway, Diana's shoulders drooped at the same time Lovely Akko's raised in excitement.

"Wow…" Lovely Akko breathed, elbowing the girl beside her. "So _this_ is where the Existentialism Clubroom was. I heard this place really makes you think."

The Akko on stage made a few final adjustments to the microphone before speaking sagely to the crowd. "So the universe. It's really big. But us?" She paused for dramatic effect. "…We're short."

The crowd all awed at this underwhelming piece of wisdom, trying to process their existence against the grand scheme of reality. Even from the doorway, Lovely Akko murmured in thought. Diana gently pushed her back, and slammed the door closed, perhaps harder than she intended.

This was…what, the 15th room they've searched, and again, nothing. The long, fruitless minutes that had passed since Lovely Akko dragged her from the newly formed fast-food place weighed heavily on Diana.

When Lovely Akko, with her unwitting crush in tow, had jumped the service counter of the…restaurant, as it were, Diana had been mildly surprised not to see a kitchen and fryers, but instead a series of doors in a long carpeted hallway. Different compartments for different aspects of the mind. Some of them just seemed like hangouts for the mental Akkos to have fun in, others seemed more business-orientated that actually dealt with psychological functions. The Core, where the Original Akko resided, would have to be here as well.

But _where?_ They've been walking down this hallway for ten minutes, and haven't been able to find a single thing that was useful to either finding the Core or the solution to these headaches. The doors were thus far all completely unlabeled, but all Lovely Akko had told her about the Original's door was that she'd 'know it when you see it.' Which meant they had to keep checking, wasting time and risking running into some hazard or an Officer, which neither of them wanted.

"It's a shame they didn't give you a map of some sort." Diana turned to Lovely Akko. "It would certainly us find the Core faster, and help me help her..."

"It's not usually this bad!" Lovely Akko defended her homeland. "I think! They've been telling me it's just been a weird week for us, so things are a little wonky right now. We're still figuring things out."

"I'm not blaming you, or any version of Akko." Diana chuckled mirthlessly. "But surely the Core is too important to just lose track of like this."

"We haven't _totally_ lost it." Lovely Akko said. "It's just harder to find when she's asleep, is all. Besides, I can find it! I've been working with the Original a lot lately, I'm just getting used to how to do it!"

That Diana could understand. It was a pretty massive change of pace, going from months of pining after Akko, unsure of how to approach her, if she even should, to actually being with her. She set a hand on Lovely Akko's shoulder as they walked to the next door. "Well, I hope you can _keep_ working for the Original." She bit the inside of her cheek. "And if…possible, help make sure she forgives m-… _Diana_ for her faults when it comes to their relationship."

Lovely Akko cocked her head. "What are you talking about? I've been working with the Original to make sure we impress Diana! That's hard work, you know!"

"I wouldn't be too concerned about that." Diana squeezed her shoulder. "I'm sure you've more than impressed her." She'd say there was almost no way Akko could impress her more, but then, that girl's been defying her expectations ever since she leapt in front of the Jennifer Tree almost a full school-year ago.

Lovely Akko was unconvinced. "We gotta be concerned about it!" She argued. "It's a lot of work to make sure someone as amazing as Diana is impressed, and all of us Atsukos gotta work extra hard to make sure we can measure up when it counts."

Diana stopped in her tracks, furrowing her brows. "Measure up…?"

Lovely Akko nodded. "And that's hard to do, you know? Diana's crazy good at everything, and to be honest I personally don't think we _can_ be as good as such an amazing girl, but I guess she'll like us if we just keep trying!"

As good? She _guesses_ Diana would like her? That…that didn't sound like something Akko should be saying. Diana tilted her head. "She's…that concerned about impressing…?"

"Yep!" Lovely Akko said cheerfully. "I think Diana really likes us now, so we gotta make sure she _keeps_ liking us! We just gotta be the best girlfriend ever, because Diana only deserves the best!"

Diana found herself somewhat uncomfortable by the revelation. _She_ wanted to impress _her_. Because she wanted to ensure she kept liking her _._ Akko was so much her opposite, and to hear she was struggling with the same unattainable drive towards perfection as her…well, why would she? Diana would never think less of her, not after everything she did. She almost wanted to pull Lovely Akko (or preferably the real Akko) into a hug and tell her that was silly, but…

Well, wouldn't that be hypocritical?

Diana wasn't stupid. She knew that she could overthink these type of things and get caught on her faults, but she _really_ wanted this to work out. That's why she was working so hard in here, to make sure she could live up to her girlfriend's expectations. But hearing the same thoughts coming out of Akko's mouth just sounded wrong. She shouldn't have to fear that Diana might not like her as much, not after a week together. Not ever.

But as soon as she opened her mouth to say it, it just felt unfair. She was thinking the same things. She _wanted_ to say something comforting, but what right did she have to tell Akko off? No, she couldn't let herself think that right now.

Right now? It made little difference. She, and her traveling companion, had arrived at another door. Another blank, unlabeled wooden door. She set her hand on the doorknob and before she opened it, she took a deep breath.

…If this was the Déjà vu room _again_ , she might actually have to scream.

It was not, fortunately, but of course, it also was _not_ the Core. Instead, it was just a cozy lounge occupied by two more doppelgangers with official looking clipboard. Spread out across the coffee table were several plastic bins, and trading cards depicting what looked like every person Akko had ever met.

One of the Akkos picked up a trading card, depicting a portrait of a Luna Nova student. "Alright, so next up is…Wangari."

Sociable Akko thought it over for a moment, before pointing to one of the bins. "I'd say we put her into the _'Acquaintances'_ bucket."

"Really?" The first Akko cocked her head. "I'd say ' _Strangers_ '. We never really talk to her."

"Yeah, but like, we know each other's names, and we _could_ hold a conversation if it ever came up."

"Fair enough."

With that, Wangari's trading card was dropped into one of the containers, and another card was picked up from the pile. "So next is Barbara. She's kinda cool, right?"

Sociable Akko nodded. "She's a jerk sometimes, but she seems nice under it. Let's put her in ' _Friends'_. I bet we could really get on her good side if we try!"

Diana shut the door, pursing her lips. Another dead end.

She looked over her shoulder at Lovely Akko, smiling obliviously, and Diana felt a stirring in her chest. Was she being unfair? To doubt herself and then feel disturbed when Akko felt the same? Was it just a feeling that happened in relationships, or were they doing something wrong? She really didn't know anymore. All Diana knew was she just didn't like the idea of Akko being so worried about such things.

And if Akko _was_ working so hard to impress her, why would she act so bashful in the real world? Diana thought nothing but good things of Akko, but subtle she was not. So far in her search for answers, all Diana seemed to find was more and more questions.

As Diana and Lovely Akko started towards the next door in the hall, Diana felt the need to say…something. It wasn't like saying anything to this mental persona will change much (She certainly didn't remember any conversations Akko had from inside her own head) but nonetheless, she turned to Lovely Akko.

"…Diana _does_ care for you." Diana smiled hesitantly. "I hope you know that."

Lovely Akko gasped, the joy completely uncontained on her face. "Does she _really_?!" She squealed, her eyes shining with excitement. "Did Diana say something to you? Are you sure?"

"I'm sure." Diana nodded. "I know you…well, Akko in general, I suppose…is the most important person in her life. And I know Diana _wants_ to be with her, she just isn't…isn't sure how to show it."

Diana sighed, running a hand through blonde hair. "I…I've spent my whole life trying to better. For my family name, for my estate and its legacy. Trying to be better for a single person shouldn't be different…but it is. I've never had a relationship like this before. I don't…I don't know what the expectations of being in a romantic relationship are."

"…That sounds sorta sad, Nevermind." Lovely Akko piped in before she could continue.  
"But um…no offense, but what does that have to do with Diana?"

The blonde shook her head with a strained smile. "…Diana is much the same way, I suppose. She's…not always as successful as she wants to be." She flinched at the beginnings of the glare on Lovely Akko's face. "A-and that's not an insult. But…she desperately wants to be successful at _this_ , and it's the one thing that I- no, _she_ …struggles with the most."

"Well you said she loves us, right?!" Lovely Akko bounced on her heels. "That's what you meant by 'cares for'? That she loves us, right?!"

"…she…" Diana felt her face flush, and she took a deep breath. "…she does. Very much."

And suddenly the shorter girl's arm was around her shoulder, pulling her into a hug as they walked. "I knew it!" Lovely Akko cheered loudly and brightly. "This is the best news I've heard since I helped save Diana's life from that ghost!"

"W-wait." Diana's brows furrowed as she ducked out of the embrace. "How, specifically, w-were _you_ involved in-"

Lovely Akko just laughed. "Oh it was no big deal! Anything for Diana!" But after a moment, her expression darkened as a realization set over her. "Oh…but…I might not get to do stuff like that anymore if I really _am_ sick..."

Diana resisted the urge to roll her eyes. "Trust me. You're not sick."

Lovely Akko fidgeted as they walked. "But should I trust you because you're right, or because I like you so I _wanna_ trust you? I don't know anymore!"

"Just…you're not sick. There's nothing wrong with you right now. Just a bit of confusion is all."

"But I dunno..." Lovely Akko tapped her chin. "Because I almost want to ask _you_ to princess-carry me. Like in that romantic way they do in superhero movies and in weddings. Just in case I don't get another chance."

"Y-you wanted me to…?" Diana's blush deepened. "…Ah. I-is that…something Akko _wants_ out of a partner, or…?"

"No, usually I want us to carry _Diana_ like that, because it'd be romantic and because being carried feels weird, but I think, _once_ it'd be cool to do it the other way around." Lovely Akko turned to her with pleading eyes. "I just wanna try it at least once, you know?"

"I…don't actually have the upper body strength." Diana admitted, averting her eyes. "My apologies."

Lovely Akko let out a forlorn sigh. "It's fine…" She waved her off. "Maybe if you're right and I'm _not_ sick, someday I can get Diana to try it."

"…Maybe." Diana agreed. Now that she thought about it, she _did_ have difficulties getting Akko to her room when she collapsed. And Akko had been encouraging her to eat sweets lately. Perhaps it would be prudent to start a workout regimen and build up some muscles.

For purely professional purposes of course.

They arrived at the next door about then. She found herself crossing her fingers as her hand set upon the knob. She _really_ hoped this was it. She really wanted to get back to the real world and to the real Akko. The sooner she could fix this, the sooner she could get back and find out if their relationship was really in as much jeopardy as she thought it was.

Her brows shot up her forehead as she opened the door. Inside was a single Akko, lounging on a loveseat in a fairly…loose fitting pink bathrobe. She turned, looked over Diana's form, and gave her a saucy wink.

"How _you_ doing?" Lustful Akko said.

Diana slammed the door closed. She proceeded down the hall without another word.

Lovely Akko had taken a single glance at the other girl, before Diana had shut the door in her face, and after a moment she laughed to herself. "Hey, that reminds me!" She said, elbowing Diana. "That Atsuko and I have been working t-"

"Don't." Diana warned simply.

"But I was just gonna say that we've-"

" _Don't._ "

Silently as she could, she blew up her bangs to let out just a little of her frustration. She _really_ couldn't handle much more of this. Her face was getting excessively warm. She looked down the hallway, seeing still dozens more doors ahead of them that they've yet to check. Which was just perfect. She glared down at her feet as they stomped across the carpet.

And then another shift happened, and the carpet was replaced with grass.

Diana glanced up, now looking at a gigantic circus. It looked similar to the fairgrounds from before. Large tents of all colors were erected as far as she could see. Giant attractions were near and far, and fireworks shot up into the evening sky and, silently, exploded in flashes of bright lights. The hallway was gone, and the doors moved somewhere else. And with them, all of their progress.

Diana groaned. "Wonderful…now all our searching's been for nothing. Who knows how long it will take to find-"

"Oh hey look." Lovely Akko ignored her. "There's the Original's door."

Diana's eyeline followed Lovely Akko's finger to a plain wooden door with a large white sticker slapped across it, somehow built into the front of a red circus tent. The text on the sticker was written in Japanese. Diana had not learned any more Japanese in the past fifteen minutes. But the smiley face scribbled in the corner needed no translation. This door was definitely different from all the others.

"…fine." Diana muttered. She wasn't even going to bother questioning it. "I'm going head inside, so please wait here. Hopefully I won't be long."

Lovely Akko looked vaguely disappointed. "Oh, um, alright then." She shrugged as Diana turned to the door. "Good luck Nevermind! Make sure to tell her I'm not sick!"

Fortunately (for Diana's growing exasperation at least) the Core was a consistent and well-documented part of psychic-melding. It took the appearance of a place of comfort for the individual, typically a bedroom. Sometimes a replica of a real one, sometimes something more idealized. After all, where would one feel more comfortable than where one lays their head down to sleep?

The wooden door creaked open, and inside the depths of Akko's psyche was a sort of…amalgamation between a Luna Nova dorm and a bedroom in a suburban home. The shape of the room, and much of the furniture, looked like standard issue Luna Nova fair. But the soft carpet, bedding, and personal decorations weren't familiar. Perhaps it was a mish-mash between Akko's dorm, and her bedroom in her home.

The Original was sleeping on the bed in her school uniform, looking as pale and sickly as she had in the real world. Diana chose not to disturb her. Not unless she needed to. Judging from the buzzing in her temples, they could both use some rest.

Her eyes silently ran over the room, searching for anything out of the ordinary. Akko's mental bedroom was cluttered and rather messy, but that was hardly surprising. She found herself staring mostly at the walls, at all the posters. One of them, interestingly, depicted two witches in white, standing on a broom above the Earth, but in particular Diana's gaze held on a giant poster of Shiny Chariot across from the bed. It had been ripped clear in half, and then carefully repaired with what looked like scotch tape.

She chose not to dwell on the implications. None of them liked to talk about that cold winter night, when Akko learned the truth about Chariot and Ursula, least of all her. Akko's bright, optimistic smile strained at the mere thought, and she'd quietly try to change the topic.

In any case, she had forgiven Professor Ursula, _and_ Croix, as evident by the fact the poster was still here. And it wasn't immediately relevant to what was going on. Though Diana was still trying to figure out what that was. There had to be something…supernatural in here. Something related to the Phantom of Faiwu _must_ be behind this. That disgusting thing had to left some mark in here that was damaging Akko's psyche. Diana scowled at the thought. As if it wasn't enough for it to use her own body as a meat puppet for its heinous purposes.

Though what that mark was, she couldn't immediately say. Nothing in here stuck out as explicitly supernatural. As silly as it was to hope that she'd just get here and have something jump out at her, like some residual ghost essence or the like, she was still disappointed. It's not like she had any real guarantee that anything of note was in here, but surely there couldn't just be nothing.

If it affected Akko enough for her to lose consciousness, then there had to be _something_ in the domain of her consciousness for her to find. She looked around the bed for anything out of the ordinary, and something just in the corner of her vision caught her eye.

The Shiny Rod, which had been lost upon the awakening of Yggdrasil, was placed on her bedside table.

She took a slow step forward, ignoring the buzzing in her forehead. Careful not to awaken the Original, Diana picked the Shiny Rod from the table, running a hand along the bronzed surface. Perhaps it was just some mental figment, but it looked and felt just as the real one did. Odd, how a wave of nostalgia could wash over her for events that only concluded a short time ago. But this staff had brought Akko to Luna Nova, and brought Diana closer to her, reluctantly on occasion. It was hard not to smile at seeing the staff one last time.

A part of her wondered if _this_ was the something that did not belong, but she pushed the thought aside. Maybe it didn't follow real world logic, but it definitely made sense for the Shiny Rod to be with Akko, in the intimate depths of the psyche. Clearly, Akko didn't think she had lost it quite yet. So Diana carefully placed it back, next to its rightful owner.

She had stepped just a bit closer to the bed, to make sure the staff didn't fall or clatter when she put it back, but when she did, the buzzing in her head got worse. Much worse. She had to bit her lip to keep from audibly groaning. Her head's been hurting practically since she got here, but this was different somehow. This wasn't her trying to process information. This felt like her brain was turning inside out, trying to bore its way through her skull.

Diana turned her gaze to the bed, where the Original slept. She didn't look any different from the Akko she knew and loved. But something about her _felt_ different. Perhaps it was just the buzzing in her head, but something incited her to lean forward closer to her.

And the buzzing immediately grew worse. Increasing in intensity, volume, _everything_. Just more and more. There was a ringing stabbing into her ears at her brain. It was like really high pitched…eeeeeeeeeee, or something. She could physically feel it vibrating against her skull.

She stumbled back, very nearly tripping over her own feet. It was just agony. The sensation was _pounding_ on the inside of her forehead, slamming against it over and over, harder and harder. In the few seconds she managed to even open her eyes, her vision was completely blurred. She couldn't even see the bed in front of her. If her actions were stirring the Original, she honestly could not tell. She couldn't concentrate on anything but this pounding.

It was too much…God, it was _too much_. This wasn't stress or a migraine. This was like her brain was tearing itself in half to do… _something_ , and her body was fighting back. She barely felt herself hit the bedroom wall. She definitely didn't hear it. She blindly groped for the door, and as soon as she felt the knob in her hand, she threw it open and crumpled into a heap in the dirt outside.

She shut the door with her foot, locking herself out as she cradled her head. And gradually, her senses began to clear. The ringing quieted and the rhythmic pounding slowed until it was no more. Diana panted for air, splaying out flat on the ground. It took her a moment to find enough of herself to bother opening her eyes. Above her head, looking down at her was some sort of heavenly light. An angel, its features shadowed by the glow of its golden halo and the silent fireworks above. The light dimmed, along with Diana's confusion.

Not an angel. _The_ Angel, the little imp with Akko's face that kept following her around. Along with the Devil, grinning with pointed teeth.

"Hey." The Angel said. "You fell down."

"Yes." Diana groaned. "That I did."

She forced herself to sit upwards, brushing the grass blades out of her hair. What _was_ that? One moment she had been looking at the Shiny Rod, then she looked at the Original and suddenly her head just screamed out. But no, not even suddenly. There had been a distinct buzzing she felt the entire time that she dismissed as more of the same, which only got worse the closer to the bed she got.

Diana rubbed the corners of her eyes. "This doesn't make any sense…"

The Devil flew in close, giggling darkly. "You seem to say stuff like that a lot!"

Diana pushed herself to her feet with a small grunt. "N-no, I've accepted the rest of this mind as…being what it is." She gazed intently at the Original's door. "But this just…doesn't add up. Why did it hurt to be near _her?_ "

She took a few steps from the door, hoping to clear up any residual pain in her head, and it turned into a slow pacing back and forth. She pinched her eyes closed, tuning out the Angel and the Devil's little comments.

That intense ringing she heard in there…Akko had described it too, when she had collapsed. And when Diana felt it, it felt like something inside her brain was reaching out. Almost desperately, like it was calling out to something. That pounding had to be related to the ones Akko had been getting, ever since she left Diana's mind a week ago. If Faiwu hadn't left some visible mark…had it been something done between the two of them instead?

There had to be a connection here she was missing. But _what?_

She wasn't kidding herself. Akko's strengths and intelligence lied with people and thinking on the spot. She was an excellent problem solver, but she was lacking when it came to technical knowledge. As rude as it felt to blame her for doing this to herself, Diana couldn't rule out the possibility either. Akko found success in psychic-melding, but that didn't mean she couldn't have made a mistake, cut a corner, done something wrong that could cause this. But it's not like Diana herself could say what. She had even less experience with this than Akko did. And no matter how close she seemed to the answers, they were always _just_ out of her reach.

"What am I _missing?_ " Diana growled at herself, running a hand through her hair once more. "What am I supposed to do to fix this?"

She felt a finger tap her shoulder, and she turned to see Lovely Akko. "Hey, Nevermind, don't be so grumpy! It's going to be alri-"

"No, it's _not_." Diana snapped. "Not until I can find out what's wrong."

"Maybe I'm still just sick but I think y-" Lovely Akko suddenly slapped her hands over her mouth. But if she had been hoping to stop the Angel and Devil from learning about her condition, it was too late.

"You're _sick?_ " The Angel gasped.

"But _we_ can't get sick." The Devil poked her in the cheek.

Lovely Akko opened her mouth to say something, only to be cut off by Diana. "Honestly, _enough_ of this." She said, pinching the bridge of her nose. "No one's sick. None of you are sick. I don't know what possessed me to lie in the first place, but it was a mistake on my part."

Lovely Akko ignored the strange looks the two imps were sending towards the back of her head. "But how do you know? I'm supposed to be in love with Dia-!" She started, only to be interrupted once more when Diana set her hands on her shoulders.

"I _am_ Diana."

Lovely Akko blinked. "…You…"

Diana just exhaled, glaring down at her feet again. "I apologize for lying, but it was…" She stopped herself before she made a pointless excuse. "…No, it wasn't necessary. It was rather petty, actually, but…I don't… _know_ what I'm doing. With any of this. I don't want to do anything wrong, but I have no idea what the right thing is. And I'm sorry. But I just-"

She forced herself to make eye-contact once more, but Lovely Akko…wasn't angry? She was staring at her blankly. Diana watched her suck in air, and steeled herself for a lecture, but instead, all that came out of Lovely Akko's mouth was a breathless squeak. It was hard to tell what to make of it.

And then the corners of her lips twitched, and spread up her cheeks in a wide grin. A very wide, _very_ excited grin. And Diana swore her heart froze in her chest. "Y-you seem to be…taking this well?"

"Diana…" Lovely Akko took a step forward. "It's you."

Diana swallowed. "I-it's…me?" She confirmed. "Now…just…let me fini-"

That was as far as she got before Lovely Akko was on top of her.

* * *

 _A.N. Well, hey! Diana solved at least one conflict! And she's found another piece of the other! She's a regular emotionally-constipated detective!_

 _As a heads up, I'm really gonna try to get the last few chapters out quicker. We're drawing nearer to the end by this point. It should end up being just shorter than MindFull. I hope you guys don't mind the odd wait times so far. Unless you're reading this after the story's over, in which case this whole message means nothing to you._


	5. Language of Lobe

In the space of less than a second, Lovely Akko threw her arms around her in a tight embrace, trapping Diana's arms at her side. But before the bewildered girl could even react, Lovely Akko had hoisted her off the ground and twirled her around, over and over. She laughed, she giggled, she made every sort of happy noise that was possible to make. Meanwhile, Diana was pretty sure she was going to get whiplash from being spun in so many different directions.

"I can't believe it's you!" Lovely Akko cried out. "It's you! It's you it's you it's you _it's you!_ "

"It's me." Diana made an effort to free her arms, but to no avail. "P-put me down now."

But of course, the girl was too happy to hear a single word. "I _knew_ you were too good to be true!" Lovely Akko, somehow, managed to squeeze her even tighter. "I knew there was no way I could fall in love with someone else besides Diana!"

"Akkoooo…" Diana whined. Between the spinning and her own flushing, she was getting _really_ lightheaded. "I…I'm very…fond of you as well, but that's why I need to go-"

She was cut off by Lovely Akko's happy squeal. "That's not my name, Diana!" She laughed brightly. "My name is Atsuko Who is in love with Diana! And that's you! It's you!"

Another long groan escaped Diana's throat. She had no response to that. She didn't even have a response to the fact that Lovely Akko was _still_ lifting her off her feet, despite being shorter than her. She showed no signs of being tired, and she _definitely_ was way too happy to simply set her down.

Lovely Akko twirled Diana around, displaying her to the Angel and Devil. "Look look look!" She dipped her downwards in a tango-like fashion. "It's Diana! It's really Diana!"

The Devil smiled at her now upside-down face. "Neat!"

Lovely Akko absolutely beamed. "Isn't it though?!"

With another happy cheer, she pulled Diana back up and buried her head under her neck. "Oh my gosh! I got a _million_ questions for you, Diana!" She said, not that Diana had anywhere near a clear enough head to understand her. "Why are you here? Why didn't you come sooner? What's your favorite color anyway? Do you think we're cute? What's your ideal date spot? When two girls get married, do they both wear dresses or does one of them have to wear a suit? Do you really like us? Have you ever had another girlfriend? Are we a better girlfriend than them? Do you think-?"

"E-enough!" Diana pinched her eyes shut, fighting down both her dizziness and her blush. "I'm…I'm very happy you're not distressed anymore, I truly am, but I should reall-w _augh!_ "

And they had gone right back into spinning again. Akko had a very cute laugh and all, but Diana was having serious difficulties appreciating it at the moment. She strained to free just a single arm from the embrace, but she couldn't even manage that.

And then Lovely Akko spun right into another doppelganger, sending all three tumbling to the ground.

Diana, quite wearily, pushed herself up from the dirt. She was half-tempted to just keep laying there, all things considered. The Akko they collided with was dressed like an electrician, with denim overalls and thick yellow gloves, and a fairly bored expression. She _had_ been carrying a large flatscreen television, which now rested on top of Lovely Akko's back. Diana pulled it off her and set it upright before helping the new Akko to her feet.

"A-are you okay, miss…?"

"…Diligent Akko." The electrician finished, with a bored shake of her head. "I'm fine. I've had bigger things fall on top of me. The Memory Monitor's alright, right?"

Diana's brows furrowed. "The…television, you mean?"

Diligent Akko nodded. "Yep. Memory Monitor. I'm one of the Atsukos whose job it is to make sure all the Memories are up and running." She picked up the entire television herself, with a small grunt. "Tough job. Gotta do it. Original says so. Gotta get this down to the Memories before we wake up again, might slow down sorting the rest of the monitors for today."

"I…see." And then an idea struck. Looking through someone's memories…it felt unethical, not to mention incredibly invasive, but she _still_ needed answers, and if she could find the exact moment these headaches started, perhaps she could learn how to fix them. The Core had turned out to be a failure anyway. As morally questionable as the idea was…

Diana picked up the other side of the television. "Allow me to help you then. It's the least I can do after knocking you over, and I…I believe I need to head to the Memories myself."

Diligent Akko hummed. "Oh sorry, but only the Original and specifically approved Atsukos can go into the Memories right now. We've been doing a big restructuring, and we can't have anybody in there."

Lovely Akko suddenly stood up, wrapping an arm around Diana's shoulder. "But _she's_ not an Atsuko! This is Diana!" She giggled. "She's the best! She's amazing! She's totally-!"

"That's enough." Diana muttered.

Diligent Akko considered this for a moment. "…fair enough." She shrugged. "Rules only specify Atsukos, nothing about Dianas. If you wanna come with, you can. But I can't have your friends in there right now."

"Wait…" Lovely Akko deflated. "But Diana! I wanna go with you!"

Diana shook her head. "I'm sorry, but there's a connection I'm searching for. I have to go."

Lovely Akko pouted, and Diana couldn't deny something stirring in her, but she left with Diligent Akko all the same, casting only a glance back to the despondent girl and the two imps. Whether it was determination or hope driving her belief she'd find the answers there, she couldn't say, but it was a fair walk to get to the Memories.

Diligent Akko didn't really speak unless Diana spoke to her, focused only on her job. After a few minutes of walking in relative silence (as silent as this giant circus could really get) they finally arrived at a fairly large red tent. The banner above the entrance had a picture of a thought bubble on it. Diligent Akko shot off a quick thanks, taking the TV from her hands and hauling it inside. Diana muttered an unheard apology to the real Akko before she entered as well.

She couldn't help but balk as soon as she stuck her head in. Inside the tent were simply _hundreds_ of televisions, stacked on top of one another from the grassy ground to the ceiling. Some of them were old, square ones, while others were relatively modern flatscreens. She never saw so many screens in one place. It'd be an electrical hazard if any of them were actually wired to anything.

It looked somewhere between an exhibition, as if the TVs were on display to be sold, and a maze formed by the solid rows. Diligent Akko stacked her television on top of one of the shorter rows, before producing a spray bottle and rag from seemingly out of nowhere. As she turned the corner (a literal wall made of stacked televisions inside a circus tent, because that's the logic this place ran on) Diana glanced around the corridors of monitors.

On each and every screen played some sort of scene. Some of them looked like videos of real life, while others looked like cartoony caricatures of events. She recognized some of the people on the screens, while others she had never seen. There was lifelike video of Professor Pisces in her classroom on a very small square monitor, stacked on top of a caricature of Constanze made of geometric shapes. There didn't seem to be any real organization in here, at least as far as she could tell.

Which would make it real inconvenient to find the memories related to the last week. But what else was new?

She actually recognized certain scenes playing on the monitors, by coincidence of being near at the time. There was Akko goofing around with Jasminka from last weekend, Barbara and Akko talking last Tuesday, Lotte unsuccessfully telling Akko to tie her shoes on Monday, Amanda laughing at Akko falling down the stairs, also on Monday, Andrew sipping soda with Akko, Sucy laughing at Akko walking into a wall. Almost every memory Diana could see was of her spending time with someone.

Though interestingly, none with Diana herself. Perhaps they were sorted somewhere else? Diligent Akko had mentioned a restructuring. On the one hand, Akko thought she was special enough to categorize their time together somewhere different. On the other hand, feeling flustered over that was stupid, especially since it was yet another inconvenience. On the _other_ other hand…Akko thought she was special. Aww.

There were a row of giant flatscreens placed on a long table in the back of the tent, with a second row of screens stacked right on top, commanding attention by pure size alone. They dwarfed everything else in here. Perhaps she shouldn't have been surprised to see Shiny Chariot's magic show on one of them. On top of that monitor was Akko's performance at the Samhain Festival. But Diana _didn't_ recognize the other ones next to it. There was Lotte talking to Akko at her desk, which looked rather tame in comparison, and next to it was, of all things, a classroom full of young children, perhaps about seven or eight years old.

Diana peered closer at that screen. The children sat in tiny plastic desks in a public school classroom. A banner depicting the English alphabet hung over a chalkboard in desperate need of a thorough cleaning. The camera, which she supposed was literally Akko's eyes, bounced up and down on the chair excitedly. This memory must have been _years_ ago.

Diana crossed her arms, turning to Diligent Akko, who was washing a screen depicting Akko falling out of a tree in Luna Nova's courtyard. "Pardon me for being nosy, but what exactly is this Memory?"

Diligent Akko glanced at the screen for a brief second. "Oh yeah, that's the first time we got an A in English. We don't get a lot of grades like that. Very important Memory right there." She said, before returning to her cleaning.

Diana glanced back at the monitor. There were just three buttons below the screen. Two buttons to raise and lower the volume, and one that read " _Next._ " She clicked the volume up a couple times, and young voices babbling in Japanese sounded from the speakers. She heard Akko drumming her fingers on her desk in anticipation.

A middle aged woman with dark hair walked over to Akko's desk and handed her back a paper, a short assignment matching pictures to English words. A " _98"_ was written at the top, next to a smiley face. Akko gasped, rapidly asking the teacher questions in Japanese. She seemed in disbelief she had achieved such a high mark. The teacher smiled down at Akko and, in heavily accented English with an R instead of an L, told her she did a lovely job. Akko's little hands reached over and hugged her waist.

It was hardly fair to judge from such a short clip, but Diana couldn't help but smile at Akko nowadays speaking more naturally than her English teacher did here. It was hardly an accomplishment to downplay. She really could do amazing things when she put her mind to it. The Memory ended after that, looping back to the start. Diana glanced down at the " _Next"_ button and, more out of curiosity than anything, pressed it.

The scene shifted from classroom to bedroom, with Akko standing in front of a mirror. She looked like she might've been starting middle school here. She also looked utterly adorable wearing her little uniform and a bright smile on her chubby cheeks. Diana had to stop herself from making a noise.

The young Akko had an English paragraph in her hand, and practiced reading it aloud to her reflection. It was short speech, just introducing herself and talking about activities she did in the past and things she would do in the future. She struggled with the pronunciation. She winced when she slipped on a word, and twice she started over with clear frustration when she spoke in the wrong tense. But she kept at it, practicing the speech over and over until it was easily recognizable as English. She smirked confidently at her reflection, and Diana chuckled at how proud she looked.

Perhaps this was the reason these TVs in particular were so big. They were memories of those times Akko's hard work had paid off.

The next scene in line looked to be only days later, in a different classroom in a different school. Akko was standing in front of all the students at their desks, clearly fidgeting. She seemed to be giving the speech, but the Memory, oddly didn't include her speaking. Apparently she didn't remember that part. After a minute or so, the students all clapped in obligation, and Akko turned to where the teacher sat. He was an older looking Japanese man, with a stern expression, writing his evaluation on a piece of paper. He handed it to Akko, and spoke in perfect, fluent English.

" _Your pronunciation needs serious work. You need to start practicing more if you want to pass my class."_

And then the monitor reset right back to her gradeschool days.

"W-what…?" Diana blinked. What sort of transition was that? This series of Memories couldn't just end on such a rude note. Surely she had just missed something. She clicked the next button again, cycling through the clips. She skipped through the first paper, the mirror, the speech, back to when Akko was talking with her stern teacher. But once again, the moment the clip ended, it simply cycled right back to the gradeschool. There was nothing more.

But…why end it there? What about the other English tests she must've taken? What about the fact that she could speak so well _now?_ Why contextualize all of those accomplishments with such a mean-spirited failure? It just ruined any sense of progress.

She glanced to the TV sitting on top of it, depicting Lotte talking to Akko at her desk. Akko was tapping a pencil against an incomplete report, clearly stuck on what to do next. Diana recognized this assignment. It had just been handed back this morning in class. This Memory must've only been two or three days ago. Turning on the volume, Lotte was giving her tips and sharing some of her answers. Akko gratefully accept her help, asking her about certain parts of the assignment.

The next clip was Akko still at her desk, tapping her pencil at a slightly more completed report. She glanced a clock, revealing her to be up at two in the morning. She rapidly flipped through a textbook with clear frustration in her body language. But despite that, she kept at it, determined to finish it before she went to sleep. But the next clip was the report finally finished, and Akko proudly handing it in to the White Magic professor. And the final clip in the cycle was the professor handing it back, with a large red 'D+' written across the top. The professor all but sneered at Akko.

" _You can't coast through this class, Kagari. Pay more attention next time._ "

Diana deflated. It was the same thing. Something so happy, so accomplished, something she put in so much work to do, capped off by a failure. And again, there was nothing else afterwards. Surely Lotte had some words of comfort, surely Akko had found something to bring up her mood, given she seemed much happier when Diana saw her only hours later, but it just wasn't included. Diana cast an apprehensive glance at all the other large televisions surrounding these two.

She forced herself to look at the monitor with the Shiny Chariot show. She didn't dare turn on the volume. The first scene was the magical show inspiring Akko, like she always said it did. Followed by her dancing in her bedroom with a Luna Nova acceptance letter in her hand. And then her proudly walking the halls where Chariot once studied, just as she always dreamed she would. Diana's finger hovered over the next button, hoping to see Akko wielding the Shiny Rod, or unlocking the final Word, or saving the world with her friends.

The scene cut to Croix and Ursula with Akko on a rooftop one cold night, and Diana lost any stomach to continue watching.

So many scenes, all conveying…not even sadness, though it was present in the brief flashes of disappointment in Akko's body language before it cut away. But no, it was all just frustration. Frustration at putting in all the work and all the effort she could and it just not ever being enough. But what felt even worse was that in some twisted way, a lot of things about her behavior began to suddenly make sense.

She looked down the row, starting to wonder just how much Akko pushed past her failures, and how much of her confidence in herself was genuine belief or just solid determination. She thought back to all the things the different Akkos in here said to her, in the bar and in the hallway, about how much they wanted to impress her or be better friends with someone.

And Diana found herself wondering what Akko's Memory of their date looked like.

She might've spent a long time dwelling on the idea, but before she could even consider it, a leather glove tapped her shoulder. Diligent Akko stood behind her with a flat smile. "Hey, so one of the newer Memories was of us asking Diana to come into our mindscape…and you said you're Diana, right? Like… _the_ Diana?"

Diana nodded slowly. "I'm the same one, yes."

Diligent Akko let out a subdued chuckle. "Nice. I was sorta hoping you could give me a hand real quick."

The worker walked over to a small television sitting alone on a wooden table, gesturing for Diana to follow. "So we usually move a lot of the Memories around when a big relationship change happens, and lately we've been copying over all the Diana-related ones to a different location, but we're stuck on one." She said, crossing her arms at the monitor. "The Original says this _is_ a Diana Memory, but that it's _not_ Diana. So we're trying to figure out where to put it."

"What does that mean?" Diana arched a brow. "Is it of me, or isn't it?"

Diligent Akko shrugged. "I dunno. That's what the Original said. I'm just trying to do my job."

Reluctantly, Diana bent down and switched the television on, and the first thing she saw was undeniably herself. She was glaring at the camera (Akko) with her hands on her hips. But Diana couldn't place when this was. Peering at the image closer, she could see…they were in the Archives? She certainly didn't remember making that expression anytime last week. She studied the image of herself, searching for an explanation, and she noticed the green eyes.

…Ah. So she was looking at herself being possessed. Diana's fists tightened.

The demon was scowling at Akko, who, as far as she could tell, was blocking the door. The two of them were talking, and Faiwu looked confused as Akko frantically waved her hands. Diana wasn't sure she really wanted to hear what that… _thing_ said to Akko in her body, but nonetheless, she turned up the volume.

But to her surprise, it was Akko's voice she heard. " _I like the way she smiles, and how she's always out there helping people learn about magic in her own way. I like that she's always trying to do her best, and the way she always uses these big fancy words._ "

Diana's eyes widened. Was Akko about…?

She…she had heard this before, but only in part. Bits and pieces of this speech had gotten through the possession, but she had never heard the rest of it. She had never even been brave enough to ask, and she wasn't even sure Akko knew she heard any of it. Was this really how Akko convinced Faiwu to move on?

The camera steadily dropped to stare at the floor as Akko continued. " _I even like the way she has trouble showing the way she cares about me and all of her friends, even though I know she really does under all of that. I like all those little things about her, because that's_ her. _And I…w-well, I…_ "

She leaned closer to the monitor, desperate to hear every word.

" _I do…love her_."

The breath left Diana's throat. In a lifetime of adulation and praise directed at her, never had something cut through her so deeply. She had known Akko cared for her, but to hear her _say_ it, so shyly and genuinely, in a desperate attempt to return her to her own body, to know she actually meant every word, to hear that Akko actually _loved_ her, even for all her faults…

Diana rubbed the corners of her eyes. How long had it been since someone had cared for her the way Akko did? Had anyone even come close since her mother? And Akko had the audacity to hesitate and second-guess herself. Diana wanted to be the perfect girlfriend to her, because she deserved everything for what she did. But she would rather Akko know that she tried and failed to be that everything for her as opposed to questioning if _she_ could measure up. Once Diana got the Original to safely send her back to the real world, she was going to make _sure_ Akko knew how much she meant to her.

Diana felt determination wash over her. Insecurities be damned. The fact remained that she loved Akko. Maybe she didn't know how to show it to her in the best way possible, but she was going to try. In every way she could, however long it takes. If Akko could do much to help her in the Archives, then she-

Diana froze.

"The Archives…" Her eyes widened. "That's…that's it."

And just like that, the pieces came into focus enough for her to snap them together. All this time she spent speculating on what might've caused this, what Akko might've seen in her mind, what might've happened, and somehow she missed it. She might've even been angry at herself if she hadn't been so excited. The reason behind these headaches was-

Diligent Akko jumped as Diana suddenly burst past her. She might've said something to her as she ran past, but Diana honestly didn't hear. She was out of the tent in a second, with the smile bright on her face. Faiwu, the headaches, her and Akko, the connection between them. _Finally_ , she realized that-

She stopped in her tracks, just barely avoiding colliding into someone. Right outside the Memory Tent were the two imps and Lovely Akko. She might've predicted they'd be waiting for her. "Diana! You're _back!_ " Lovely Akko bounced on her heels. "And wow! You look so happy! What's going on?"

And somehow, just seeing Akko's smiling face overwhelmed her. There were so many things she wanted to say, right then and there, and she couldn't form a single word. Perhaps it was because she was filled with adrenaline after figuring everything out, perhaps it was because she was still reeling from watching the Memories. Perhaps she was just completely useless. Whatever the reason, her heart leapt up to her throat, and she did the very first thing it told her to do.

She pressed her hands to Lovely Akko's cheeks. Lovely Akko smiled obliviously. "Hey, whatcha doi-"

She was cut off when Diana mashed their lips together.

She simply couldn't help herself. It was hardly a spectacular kiss, especially since Lovely Akko had yet to react, but Diana had never put so much passion into anything she did. She _needed_ Akko to know how important she was. She wanted her to know that she solved the puzzle at last. So she poured everything she had into that kiss. And it took the normally self-aware Cavendish a long moment to finally come back to her senses.

Diana snapped backwards, her face a deep, _deep_ red. She made an effort to flatten her expression and look apologetic, but there was simply no way to wipe the smile of her face. "S-sorry! I'm sorry!" She couldn't even keep the giggling out her voice. "My apologies. I shouldn't have…w-well, I'm sure _you_ don't mind, b-but that was a bit inappropriate, wasn't it? Sorry."

Lovely Akko stood blankly.

Diana brushed off the girl's shoulders before straightening her own tie. "W-well! It was very nice to meet you. But then, I suppose we _have_ already been acquainted before. In a sense. Y-you know what I mean." She cleared her throat in an effort to push down her stuttering. "In any case, I need to go. I have to get to the Core again as soon as possible. Again, sorry for…jumping on you like that."

Lovely Akko stood blankly.

The two imps exchanged a bewildered look, before the Angel responded in Lovely Akko's stead. "But we were just there. I thought you wanted to come here to find answers. Why do you need to go back?"

"Because I need to go back to the real world." Diana said. "I need to wake up the Original and have her send me back. Then I need to talk to Professor…" She snapped her fingers at herself. "Professorrr…gah, which one was it that was an expert in psychic melding?"

With a bemused huff, Diana turned on her heels. "Ah, it's clear I need more help with this than I thought. There's no time to explain anyway. I have to get out of here before another shift occurs and makes the Core that much harder to find."

The Devil tilted her head, practically flying sideways. "I…wait, what's going on now?"

"As I said, I don't have time to explain. The sooner I can help Akko, the better. And I finally know how to do it."

The Angel, still blatantly confused, scratched her head. "So does that mean you finally figured out what the connection was?"

"That's just it." Diana turned back, smiling confidently. "I realized that I don't."

And without another word, Diana darted off. She hadn't run so fast in her life, but it didn't faze her. Even if she _had_ the time before another shift could occur, she didn't want to waste a second. She finally knew where she wanted to go, what she wanted to do, and the kind of person she wanted to be to the girl who meant everything to her. So she wouldn't dwell on her mistakes. So she couldn't look back now.

So she didn't see when Lovely Akko finally fainted.

* * *

 _A.N. She freaking killed her dude._

 _Like that's how our girl ends the chapter. Run out, make out, peace out, explain nothing. Ah well, at least she's in a good mood now. Hopefully the next chapter won't take me too long, especially since Finals week is in full swing right about now which complicates things, but writing usually helps me de-stress. And it would be a real shame to leave with such a vague revelation on Diana's part, but then, I did try to throw in all the clues to what's actually causing this, like a really gay mystery novel._

 _Not a good mystery novel, mind you. But stuff's there, and we'll hear a certain Professor tell it like it is next time! Perhaps not the one you might expect!_


	6. Can't Get You Into My Head

A distinct feeling of whiplash filled Diana's head as her consciousness was flung back into her own body, still sitting on the desk chair in the Red Team's room.

It hadn't been extraordinarily difficult to get back to the Original's door, even with how disorganized and hyperactive Akko's mind was. Even if it had been, Diana wasn't about to complain. She was running on adrenaline, still high on emotions that were too new to her to properly identify but ones that filled her with optimism all the same.

She had woken up the Original without much effort as well. Akko hadn't actually been incapacitated in any way, after all. There were no possessions or sleeping spells or sicknesses. She had just passed out. And with just a few light shakes of her shoulder, the Original woke up and gave her a bewildered look. In an effort to clear her head, she expelled everything from it, safely removing Diana's consciousness from her own. Which had been Diana's intention all along. No need to go repeating the same problem, after all.

When she opened her eyes, Lotte was looking at her inquisitively, and Sucy was marginally less indifferent towards her as she usually was. But she didn't answer either expecting stare, instead focusing on Akko as she sat up from the bed.

"Ugh…what time is it? Did I miss dinner…?" She glanced over, her eyes widening when she noticed Diana's intense gaze. "Diana? You're back? Did you manage t- _augh!_ "

Akko suddenly doubled over, clutching her forehead. The headaches had apparently always been worse whenever Akko first regained consciousness, which if Diana's guess was right, made a bit of sense. She quickly rushed to Akko's side, catching her before she fell either way again.

Groaning, Akko looked up to her. "But…I thought you fixed this…?"

Diana found herself wincing. "I…no, I'm sorry. I'm still working on it." She smiled softy, trying to ease any lingering doubts. "I know you just woke up, but are you feeling well enough to walk?"

"Walk?" Akko blinked. "What? I mean, yeah I guess I can, but what-?"

Diana took the girl's hand from her forehead and, as gently as she could, helped her to her feet. "I have a pretty good idea what caused this, but I don't…truly…" She swallowed. "…I believe we need to talk to an expert."

Akko cocked her head, wobbling on her feet. "…I…guess that makes sense. Just…give me a second to get my footing here. My head's still all wonky, but I trust you to fix this."

Diana almost wanted to say something, but bit her tongue. Whatever would change between their dynamic by the end of this, she would deal with it then. But first, she would fix this, now that she finally knew she could.

Akko steadied herself on Diana's shoulder, but quickly pulled it back. And when she did, she groaned in pain as her headache intensified. Diana didn't move, as of yet unsure how to react, but stood ready to catch her if she should fall.

But thankfully, she didn't. She looked like she could have. But she didn't. Diana allowed herself a smile, and turned to Akko's roommates. "Lotte, Sucy. Thank you for your help in all this."

Lotte blinked. "S-sure…?"

Diana quickly brushed past Akko, opened the door for her, and led her out towards the faculty offices. And despite her genuine gratitude towards them, she didn't bother to stick around to explain herself to either Lotte or Sucy. Perhaps it was still the adrenaline. Either way, she closed the door behind her (as quietly as she could) and ended up seeing one last exchange between the two before she left for the offices.

Lotte turned to her remaining roommate. "What's going on now…?"

Sucy shrugged, before returning to her potions. "Who can tell with those two?"

* * *

Akko waited in the hallway just outside the Professor's door while Diana had gone in to explain. She was still disorientated, and appreciated a moment's quiet. Besides that, considering both their reputations, Diana figured it would be for the best _she_ be the one to explain why they were dabbling in magic they really shouldn't be.

Plus, even with how much she knew she had to get over her insecurities, she still found herself somewhat afraid of letting Akko see her so flawed. She _will_ show her, before the day's end. But that didn't mean she wasn't scared to do it. So she explained everything she knew about Akko's trip into her own mind with Faiwu, and what happened in the Archives (just slightly glancing over more intimate details) and everything that happened today with Akko's headaches. And once the professor understood more of what was at stake, she sent Diana back out to bring Akko in.

Akko cocked her head at the Professor sitting at, or rather, on top of her desk. "Professor Pisces?" Her voice was full of disbelief. " _You're_ the one who's good at this psychic stuff?"

In her bowl, Professor Pisces nodded, with as much of a smile as a goldfish could reasonably give. "Of course!" She bubbled. "I'm stuck in a bowl most of the day, after all. I'm sure you can understand the appeal of swimming around in someone's psyche for me! How are you feeling right now?"

Akko took a moment to translate from fish, before giving a rather indifferent shrug. "I've been worse, I guess." She took a seat in one of the chairs in front of Pisces's desk, cradling her head in her hand.

"That's a good way to look at it!" Pisces bobbed up and down. "Have you gotten very far on the extra credit I gave you? It's due Thursday!"

"What?" Akko's brows shot up. "I thought it was due Friday!"

"Thursday, I'm afraid. We're not _that_ good of friends, after all!"

Diana coughed into her fist as she sat back at the desk. "If we could focus on the task at hand, please."

"Right you are. Pisces nodded…maybe. It was difficult to really tell. "Now I believe I can guess what happened. Psychic-melding is a very volatile field. There's plenty that can go wrong, as I'm sure you're _both_ aware. Isn't that right…" She turned to face Diana. "… _Akko?_ "

The two witches stared incredulously at the professor. Pisces stilled for a moment.

"…Is this not a body-swap thing? Miss Cavendish seemed quite animated when she came in here and explained."

Diana felt the heat rise to her cheeks. "…No, we're both in our proper bodies. A-and I wasn't _that_ …animated."

Pisces floated downward. Maybe dejection? It seemed like fish body language was one more thing Diana was not an expert at. "I never get to deal with body-swaps." She said. "You were leaving out details when you explained. Since this is Faiwu we're dealing with, should I assume the details you skipped were related to that mouth-pressing thing you humans do?"

Akko straightened in her seat. "What does Faiwu gotta do with this? It moved on, right?"

"If I'm right…" Diana said, silently thankful Akko had missed the mouth comment. "Her mind is still connected to mine."

"That's…correct, actually." Pisces turned to face Akko fully. "When you were in Miss Cavendish's mind, you were very suddenly banished. Which normally wouldn't be a problem, but you weren't banished by her, were you?"

And then Akko shrunk back down, twiddling her fingers. "Well…no." She admitted. "I kinda…got kicked out before I could stop it from possessing Diana…"

"Which caused problems for your consciousness in particular. It was connected with Miss Cavendish's when you entered her mindscape. Because you were removed by a third party, your mental bond wasn't severed properly. Your consciousness is still reaching out to find hers." Pisces turned again, this time to Diana. "I realize you're a star pupil, Miss Cavendish, but how did you guess this?"

"I realized that if Akko's headaches had been going on since I was…incapacitated, then something must've gone wrong when she was in my mind. It simply took me a moment to realize what that must've been. And since minds can only be connected when both bodies are asleep, and Akko's headaches come when she wakes up…the rest was merely an educated guess."

"But…wait, that doesn't make sense." Akko piped up. "Why can't my head find Diana's? She was literally inside of it!"

"For one thing, it's your consciousness reaching out for that connection, which was asleep when Miss Cavendish was in there. This part's an easy fix." Pisces said. "The spell is called _Interitus._ It will temporality mend your conscious minds together into a shared, artificial mindscape, which should allow you to overcome that part of the problem. Given your circumstances, it should be fairly simple to cast if you just focus on the image of the other's mindscape."

"What's the other part?" Akko asked.

"I imagine the other part of it is the fact that one or both of you are actively resisting connecting to each other." Pisces said, before quickly adding, "…Given you're both teenage girls, and humans in general have weird standards for emotional connections, I'm certain I can guess where that resistance comes from."

"So I…see." Diana chewed the inside of her cheek. More proof she needed to just flat out tell Akko the truth, as if what she saw in her Memories wasn't enough.

"In any case, it's certainly good you came to me when you did. Wouldn't want Miss Kagari to get a brain tumor, after all."

Diana and Akko jumped up at once. " _What?!_ "

Pisces's fins bobbed up and down. "Oh, the looks on your faces! Is she kidding? Is she serious? You don't know!" She sighed contentedly, releasing a flurry of bubbles. "…but yeah, it's for the best you do this as soon as possible. You can go, Miss Kagari, there's one more thing I need to tell Diana specifically.

"I…?" Akko's eyes flicked between Diana and Pisces for answers. All Diana could do was shrug helplessly. Akko sighed. "O-okay. Sure."

She left to wait outside, shooting Diana one last glance. Diana found herself hoping whatever could come next, she could live up to that look in her eye. With a worried sigh, she turned back to Pisces.

"Now, Miss Cavendish. There's a…physical aspect of this spell that you can't let Akko know quite yet." Pisces seemed to fidget. Again, a fish. Hard to tell. "Come here and let me explain."

Diana leaned in closer to bowl, unsure of what exactly she meant by 'physical.' Pisces, after a moment's hesitation, began to explain what she had to do. And Diana felt a blush creeping up her cheeks. "Ah…" She cleared her throat. "T-that…might get awkward."

"You're both big girls now. I'm sure you can handle this just fine."

"But I can't even… _warn_ her I'm going to do…that?" Diana asked. "It seems…contradictory to what I'm trying to do."

"No." Pisces said simply. "Fixing a mental bond like this requires…let's call it spontaneity. You can't let her know."

Diana almost scoffed. "That's _one_ word for it, I suppose." There weren't any lengths she _wasn't_ willing to go for right now. But that didn't mean she was automatically comfortable with it. She swallowed, before turning to leave the office. "I'll…find a way to manage. Thank you for your help."

* * *

As Diana walked with Akko still wobbling at her side, she kept glancing to the sun setting on the golden horizon. She hated having to make Akko keep walking everywhere, especially away from both the dorms and the nurse's office, but she gently guided Akko towards the privacy of the courtyard behind the class building. The spell was best done outside, and considering the…other aspect of it, Diana wasn't sure she wanted any prying eyes.

Akko sighed as she walked. "I'm can't believe Faiwu caused all this. It must've been an accident, right? It seemed really cool when it finally left."

Diana, despite her best efforts, couldn't keep the indignation out of her voice. "You honestly forgive that thing?"

Akko averted her eyes with a small shrug. "I mean…I'm sorry it messed with you, but I would never let it do anything to actually hurt you, you know? And nothing bad happened, I promise."

"I'm not mad. Not at you." Diana assured her. "I know you did everything you could."

"Besides, it was just making a mistake." Akko smiled brightly. "And I make lots of those, so how can I stay mad at it?"

"Don't say that." Diana bristled, her chest tightening. "You shouldn't think like that. Everybody makes mistakes. You don't need to define yourself by them. You're so much more than that."

"Uh." Akko blinked. "…okay…? Wwwhat are you talking about?"

Had she been anyone else, Diana might've groaned at herself. "Never mind. Just…I'm not mad. That's all you need to take away from that."

Akko nodded affirmatively, but the sudden head movement seemed to disorientate her again. She tripped on her feet, and might've gone into the ground had Diana not reflexively caught her arm. "W-whoa…h-hang on…" Akko slurred. "Still a little loopy, you know?"

"Do…do you need me to try and carry you?" Diana asked, a fresh blush rushing to take its place in her cheeks again. "I mean…I…I _could_ give it a try, if it would…i-if it's something that would _help_ , I'm very willing to…y-you know…"

Akko simply squinted at her. "…Hey, uh…don't take this the wrong way Diana, but you're being _super_ weird right now."

"…I see." Diana cleared her throat. "I suppose we don't need to go anywhere else. This spot works well enough."

It was a fairly narrow patch of grass between Luna Nova's fence and the main classroom building. Quiet enough for Akko's current disposition, secluded enough for Diana's own. She almost, _almost_ reached down to take her wand. Instead, she crossed her arms and turned to Akko. "You cast the spell."

Akko's eyes widened. "W-wait… _me?_ " She floundered, scratching the side of her head. "I mean, if we're doing a spell that affects our brains, why do you want _me_ to do it? You're better at this sort of stuff anyway, Diana!"

Diana was unmoved. "Believe in your believing heart, Akko."

"Oh you had to go _there_." Akko rolled her eyes, the slightest flush on her cheeks. "But still, why don't _you_ wanna do it?"

And again, there was so much Diana _wanted_ to say there. It took her a moment to open her mouth and speak. "…humor me. I'm sure you can do it."

Hesitantly Akko took out her wand, shooting Diana another questioning glance, as if to confirm that this was what she wanted. Diana simply nodded. Akko held her wand in front of her face, taking a deep breath. Clearly unsure if she could actually pull it off. But after a few moments of silently psyching herself up, Akko flicked the wand and with as much passion in her voice as she could get (and she could get a lot) yelled out the incantation.

" _Interitus!_ "

Emerald sparks shot out from the tip of Akko's wand, and a delighted smile filled her face at her success. Several emotions mixed within Diana at how surprised the girl seemed, but before she could do much to articulate them, the emerald sparks joined into twin spheres floating just above the wand, about the size of baseballs.

Akko prepared to poke one with her finger. "Ooh, what are th-?"

And then the two baseballs shot forth towards the two witches. Diana flinched as one of them screamed towards her forehead. But the painful impact she was expecting never came. Instead the sphere seemed to absorb into her head with a strange tingling sensation. A shiver ran through her body. And judging from the scrunched up expression on Akko's face, the impact had been just as bizarre for her.

They suddenly found themselves standing in a black void, images swirling around them like a storm. Diana spotted the Archives in there, alongside the fairgrounds and nightclub she had spotted in Akko's mind. She also saw…some manner of office building, alongside a courtroom. The images swirled rapidly, around and around, until they blurred together in a black smear. And gradually, a new image came into place around them.

"Whoa!" Akko jumped. "We're in space!"

Diana's eyes snapped downward, suddenly finding the Shooting Star beneath their feet again, just as they had been when they stopped the missile together. And thousands of feet below the Shooting Star was the Earth floating brilliantly in the star-studded vacuum of space. They were both still in their uniforms, with no spells protecting them from the environment. But then…she supposed it was just some illusion, wasn't it?

Her heart skipped a beat when Akko flopped down _distressingly_ recklessly, to sit on the broom with her feet kicking childishly off the side. "A-Akko, be careful!"

"What?" Akko cocked her head. "It's not real, right? So I'm not gonna actually fall. Now you just need to figure out how to make my headache go away."

Diana sighed, before much more carefully sitting down next to her. "I'm not…entirely sure how to go about doing that." She admitted, more quietly than she intended.

"You don't?" Akko asked, genuinely surprised. "But…you're like an expert in everything!"

"If only…" Diana chuckled mirthlessly. Her gaze dropped down to her lap. "Akko…when I was in your mind I…I went through your memories."

Akko fidgeted. "O-oh. Um…did…did you see me falling down the stairs, or…?"

"That's not what I'm..." Diana sighed. "…Yes, I saw it. Lotte _told_ you to tie your shoes."

Akko's brows furrowed. "Lotte? Oh no, I wasn't talking about that time. I meant this morn-" She quickly stopped when she noticed Diana arching a brow at her. "N-never mind. I guess I don't mind. I tell you almost everything anyway."

Almost. And wasn't that their key word?

"You refrained from looking in mine, so I felt I needed to tell you. Because the truth is I…" Her throat suddenly felt very dry. "I'm not…I don't…" She sighed, running a hand through blonde hair with a shy smile. "…Sorry. I'm still struggling with…this."

"Diana…?

She tensed under Akko's questioning gaze, and found it difficult to meet her eyes. She knew she needed to tell her everything. She just wasn't sure _how_. Or worse, what would happen afterwards. Instead, she looked downward, at the Earth almost glowing against the blackness of space. Even if it _was_ an illusion, it was still…humbling. Her mind drifted back to that moment on the Shooting Star, when the Shiny Rod finally brought forth Yggdrasil to cast its magic branches across the globe.

"It's different, seeing the world like this again." She admitted quietly. "It's almost…lonely."

Akko's eyes scanned across the cloud covered continents. "What do you mean by that?"

Diana folded her hands in her lap. "What I mean is...when we revived Yggdrasil back when we were last up here, it was so magical and distracting. In the moment, all I saw was how beautiful it all was. I felt so accomplished. All I could think was how…how we did it."

"Yeah." Akko nodded. "We brought magic back to everyone. I bet when the next school year starts..."

"But now that I have a chance to just take it in, it makes me feel…small, if that makes sense." Diana gestured down to the planet. "I still see all that beauty, but now it's…overwhelming. There's just so much there I want to protect and do right by. More than anyone could ever do." And she found her voice dropping lower and lower. "Who am I, compared to all that?"

Akko was silent for a moment, before she pursed her lips. "I'm not sure I get what you're going for, but I totally get feeling small. Not that anyone ever cuts _me_ slack about it. Every time I complain about my height Constanze just gives me a dirty look. Like, it's not a competition!"

Diana shook her head with a small, amused, scoff. "Akko…"

Akko just giggled. "That was a joke. Sorta. She actually _does_ do that." She set a hand on Diana's shoulder. "But why do _you_ feel small? I mean even with the fact that you're taller than me-"

"Not by all that much, you know. Let's not exaggerate it."

"But even with that, you do a lot of really impressive stuff!" Akko argued. "You know so much about everything! You do so many big things with so many big people, so why would you feel small about _anything?_ "

"Because I'm worried what the world thinks of me." Diana played with the hem of her skirt. "I want to be so much more to it, because I think…a part of me was worried it might leave me behind…"

Akko stared at her, visibly struggling to find a response. "You're getting kinda existential here." She paused. "…That's the word, right?"

"It is, yes."

She felt Akko's hand squeeze her shoulder reassuringly. "Look, I dunno what this has to do with anything, but I don't think you should worry about what everyone else thinks. You should just be proud of what you did."

Diana looked back up at her. "Is that what you do?"

"I…try to do it." Akko shrugged, kicking her feet. "It's hard sometimes, but I just remember all the friends I make, and I keep trying harder and harder every day to do my best for them! So don't worry about what the world thinks of you, okay?"

"…I try not to." Diana smiled. "Perhaps this seems…abrupt, but when you were in my mind, you found a…" She exhaled, fighting against her nervous instincts. "…Diana who had feelings for you. Am I correct in that?"

Akko's eyes widened. Diana supposed she shouldn't be surprised. Both of them had been avoiding directly talking about this for a while now, almost entirely for her own sake. "I…y-yeah. I _may_ have…sorta…f-found that one." Akko shook her head frantically. "B-but I didn't _mean_ to-!"

Diana reached over and squeezed her hand, cutting her off before she could continue. "I know you didn't. But what I want to say is…she was there _before_ you ever knew. And I…I wasn't ready to tell you at the time. I'm not sure if I ever could have, without that push. Because I think I'm…what I'm trying to say is…I'm sorry you doubted yourself, but…you're not…you shouldn't have. You didn't need to, I mean."

Akko scratched the side of her head. "I'm…I'm sorry, Diana. I just…I don't know if I get what you're talking about anymore…"

"No, it's not your…" Diana shook her head. "S-sorry. I'm not…I'm not very good at this. But my point is…I'm _proud_ to be with you, Akko."

Akko's cheeks erupted in a red hue. "Y-you-? M-me…? I mean, um! Wow!" She chuckled bashfully, staring downwards. "But it's…not like I really did all _that_ much to be proud of."

"How do you figure that?"

"W-well, I mean…just with this today. I didn't exactly stop Faiwu from possessing you in time. I've been all sick and mopey, and I still don't really get half the stuff you're talking about. I'm just a bit of a mess today." She said, laughing at herself. "I'm just…Akko, you know?"

"And?" Diana smiled gently. "I'm just Diana."

Akko's brows furrowed. "But I…You…? Like…um…" She pursed her lips with an annoyed hum. "…you know, I don't really know what else to say. I kinda thought that just summed it all up."

Diana stood up on the broom, and reached down to help Akko to her own feet. Both because it would make it easier to do what she had to at the end of all this, and because it made it easier to face her. They stood across from one another, not letting go of the other's hand.

Diana felt her stomach flipping, and her perfectionism crying out for her to stop. And her voice came out in a whisper. "The truth is, Akko, I was sort of…afraid. I didn't want to be 'Just Diana' to you. I wanted to be so much _more_ to you. But I think that's…unfair of me. Unfair to both of us."

"Wait…" Akko's murmured. "Afraid…? W-were you afraid of disappointing… _me?_ I don't...why?"

"Because…" Diana took one last deep breath. "…Just Akko is the girl I fell in love with."

Akko gasped. "Y-you…you really mean…?"

Diana let out an empty chuckle. "Of course I do." She gazed down into Akko's wide eyes. "You never _needed_ to do anything to impress me. I fell for you because you're _you_. And I admired the things you did, and the things you've been through, but…I think it was wrong of me to focus on them."

"Y-you…you're just gonna ignore…?"

"I'm not saying ignore. But…I should've only appreciated them because they made you who you are. Just Akko." She swallowed again, fighting against the desire to shift on her feet. "Because Just Akko is all I want. And…I'm hoping the person I am is enough for her."

Tears pricked the corners of Akko's eyes. "D-Diana…I don't…I don't even know what to say…" She sniffled, smiling brightly. "I-I mean, of _course_ you're enough! Y-you're more than enough! B-but no one's ever…wow…"

"I'm sorry I ever made you doubt yourself, Akko. I just wanted you to know that no matter what, you've always been important to me. As a rival, a best friend, a girlfriend…you've always had a place in my heart."

"H-hey! Y-you don't need to say sorry!" Akko sniffled again. "I-it's totally fine!"

"Be that as it may….I'm sorry…for what I'm going to do next."

"What do you…" Akko mumbled. "What do you mean?"

Diana took a deep breath. Now or never. "…I know I'm not an expert on any of this, but…please, trust me. C-close your eyes."

Akko looked up at her, her crimson eyes still glistening. But with a shy smile, she closed her eyes. Diana's heart skipped a beat at her faith. She gazed at the girl she loved, drinking in the sight of the tinge of red coloring her features. She wasn't aware of her thumb running across her knuckles until she looked down to see it happening. When she lifted her hand to rest it on the nape of Akko's neck, the girl shuddered.

Diana forced down her jitters. This was the moment she would fix this. It was…difficult to tell what would come after this, especially with what Pisces would have her do to fix this. But for Akko, she would do it. For both of them together, she would do anything.

And ever so gently, Akko leaned forward. Diana felt her heart pound in her chest. She took one last, long look at her, standing on the broom against the light glow of the Earth below them, before she closed her own eyes. No more delaying, no more hesitating, no more trying to hide behind her insecurities. Even if this would be the most awkward thing she had ever done.

She took one more calming breath, and slammed her forehead into Akko's own as hard as she possibly could.

* * *

 _ **AN. She freaking killed her dude**_

 _Uploaded later than I'd like, but again, finals. Sorry! The crack about not a good mystery novel was more about how the problem's only really obvious in hindsight. I didn't actually expect anyone to guess, but I did want it to make all the more sense when you went back and read it over. And the solution seems pretty obvious, doesn't it? I mean, how else would they do it? That's where their brains are!_

 _Anyway, one last chapter to go! Hope to see you there for it! Both these fics have been a blast!_


	7. A Minor Case of Social Anxiety

"What the hell?!" Akko stumbled backwards, clutching her forehead.

"Language." Diana mumbled.

"What the hell?!"

As soon as Diana had up and decided to _assault_ her like that, the shared mindscape they had created had shattered like glass. Now she was back on solid ground. Almost quite literally, considering how much force Diana had put into the impact. If she hadn't been holding onto her hands, Akko was sure she would've fell face-first into the grass.

Diana bit her lip. "I…realize how this sounds, but are you okay?"

"You just headbutted me!" Akko cried. "I can't believe you just headbutted me!"

Diana shrunk back with a sheepish smile. "I…I _did_ apologize beforehand. If I had warned you, you might've unconsciously fought back. Even apologizing beforehand risked compromising the spell, but I couldn't just-"

" _That_ was to fix my headache?" Akko asked incredulously. "How does hitting me in the head _more_ fix my head hurting?"

"Do you still feel that intense ringing you felt earlier?"

"No! Because now my forehead hurts, Diana!"

"But the ringing is gone, yes?"

"I…!" Akko started, only to pause. Aside from the bruise forming just above her brows, her head now felt…fine. Clearer than it had for days. No more pounding at all. "…huh. Yeah, I…I guess it is gone. So you did…fix it then. Uh…thanks."

"If that bruise on your head hurts, I could perform a quick healing spell?"

Akko crossed her arms. "So _now_ magic can fix this…so not fair."

"This is just physical trauma." Diana pulled out her wand. "It's a very easy fix. And again, I'm _very_ sorry about that."

The tip of Diana's wand released a flurry of emerald sparks, which joined into a deep, green wave of energy that flowed into the fresh bruise on Akko's forehead. Akko herself, making an effort to stand still so Diana could concentrate, just shrugged. "I'm not mad at you. At least you didn't do it just to prank me or something."

The wave faltered for a brief second. "Why would I prank you?"

"I dunno!" Akko said, suppressing a shiver at the cold sensation of healing magic. "I just thought…well, I dunno what I thought."

Which was something of a lie. Her thoughts were a bit more composed than she was willing to admit, or able to articulate. It was a problem she had with her current company. Because sometimes, Akko thought, it really felt like Diana was playing-

* * *

"-mind games with us!" Lovely Akko sighed, sinking lower into her beanbag. "I _really_ thought she was going to do it this time. She said all those nice things about all the things she wanted to be for us, and she was holding our hand…"

A sullen feeling weighed down around the large, circular lounge. Almost every single Atsuko in the mind deflated and drooped as the Original's mood fell, one of the few times any of them diverted attention from the Crystal Ball in the exact center of the room. Even if the Original hadn't been projecting her disappointment across the mind, the image of the beautiful Diana Cavendish gingerly casting a healing spell on their body's forehead playing inside the Crystal Ball might've left quite a few of them embittered.

Word had spread fast about what was happening in the real world, from the flurry of excited emotions the Original had spread out, and almost every emotion had rushed to the lounge either to watch the moment happen, or if they believed in themselves, to help influence the Original in her desire. A desire that had been consuming her incessantly for the past week, a desire the Original kept either chickening out on or missing her chance on.

The Original, and by extension, almost every single Atsuko in the mind, wanted them to kiss their girlfriend. And the four Atsukos on the beanbags in front of the giant Ball were getting really tired of falling short of that simple goal.

Sociable Akko adjusted her sunglasses, glancing to the Lovely girl sitting next to her. "Ugh, I can't believe I made us lean in for a kiss. All the social cues made it seem like that was what she was going for. How was I supposed to know she'd headbutt us?"

Lovely Akko glared. "Don't be mean to Diana!" She gestured to the Ball. "She was doing that to help us, and she looks like she feels bad about it!"

Smart Akko straightened up from her own beanbag. "Come on, guys! Let's just think about this logically. Yeah, that was sort of embarrassing that we leaned in when that wasn't what she was going for, but she also basically said she loves us! We can still turn this around in our favor!"

Diligent Akko gave a bored shrug. "What's the plan to get her to kiss us then? We all know whenever we try to get the Original to do this sort of thing, it gets messed up along the way."

The four of them exchanged serious looks. The Original was usually pretty good at handling her emotions. She was pretty aware and unashamed about how she felt. So whenever it came time for one of the emotions to help influence the Original in her decision making, it was a fairly simple process. Almost _all_ of the Original's decisions were made from emotions, and the Original wasn't one to second-guess herself once she started. Rarely did they have to convene and plan like this on anything.

But ever since last week, there was Diana. And no matter how strongly Lovely Akko worked, or how much Sociable Akko reminded everyone of all the right social cues, the Original flipped each and every time. Which meant if tonight was the night they were going to get that kiss, they had to put on their game faces and really plan this out.

"Diana's our _girlfriend!_ " Lovely pointed out. "We can just _ask_ her to kiss, can't we? Especially since we've already done it twice!"

"That's a good point…" Smart tapped her chin. "…but we gotta build up to it a bit, if we want the Original to listen to us on this."

Sociable tapped her chin. "Well…the atmosphere on the broom was romantic…honestly, if we just talk about that a bit, try and get some feeling going, we can probably build up another good atmosphere."

Lovely bounced up in her beanbag. "And then we can get her to kiss us! And not a possessed Diana or a Diana who thinks she's dreaming, but the _real_ Diana!"

"Then that's the plan!" Smart encouraged the four to scoot closer to the Crystal Ball. "We'll tell her we _thought_ she was gonna kiss us on the broom, and since she's _already_ our girlfriend, she'll take the hint and we'll have _her_ kiss _us_! That way, the Original won't mess it up!"

The four all nodded, and gingerly, Sociable Akko reached out and placed her hand on the Crystal Ball. As the suggestion filtered through to the Original, the emotions watched with baited breath. There was no time for play or merriment, not with this. Not now. The operation was on.

* * *

As Diana finished her spell and withdrew her wand, Akko rather awkwardly cleared her throat. "S-so! Um…aside from the whole…whacking me thing, that uh, broom vision whatever thing was kinda cool, right?"

Diana kept her gaze on Akko's forehead, making sure the bruise was well and truly gone. "It was certainly an experience. And you're sure you're not angry about…?"

"Headbutting me? Nah." Akko shrugged. "I get hit in the head all the time. It's no big deal."

"It's a big deal to _me_." Diana muttered. "I have no desire to see you hurt, not if I can help it. And _causing_ it to you does little to make me feel better."

Akko felt the blush creeping back up her cheeks. "Y-yeah…well um…you fixed everything anyway, so it's all fine! Don't worry! I think you did a really nice job and…uh…yeah!"

Diana hummed, finally looking back down into Akko's eyes. "If I can…ask…where do you wish to go from here? In regards to…us?"

"W-with us?" Akko blinked. "I don't…what do you mean?"

"I…look, I know you basically said you were fine with all of this but…" Diana bit her lip. "Well, I read that communication is very important in successful relationships, so I'd just…like to hear your opinion, if you have one."

"Wait, w-were you reading… _dating_ advice?"

Diana flushed, rolling her eyes. "…You don't have to say it like _that,_ Akko." She grumbled. "A-and yes. I may have looked at a few things here and there. It's like studying for a test. It helps to be prepared, after all."

"A… _test?_ " Akko repeated.

"Not the point." Diana held up her hand. "Since we were being more honest with each other, I thought I should at least…ask. It was on my mind. I'm not expecting you to have a whole solution thought out, but…"

"But?"

"I-in all honesty, I'm just...somewhat…w-" Diana stopped. "…curious, as to what you think should happen, now that everything's been laid on the table like this. What happens now?"

* * *

Lovely Akko swooned. "Aaaaw! She's so _cute!_ Do you think she read up on all that just for us?"

"Ugh…why do we keep _stuttering_ like that?" Smart groaned. "The Original's making us look like a moron. It's like our mouth isn't working right."

"Yeah, that was… _super_ lame." Sociable crossed her arms. "If Diana hadn't said all that stuff about how she doesn't care that we look lame in front of each other, I'd be really pissed at ourselves right now."

"Plus it was slow." Diligent said flatly. "Very inefficient way to convey information. Also, we never really answered her question and I think she's waiting."

Smart crossed her arms. "Well _obviously_ , we gotta make sure she knows we wanna keep being with her." She explained to the lounge. "That's the most logical answer to her question."

"Can we tell her we think she's pretty?" Lovely asked hopefully. "That way, she doesn't have to seem worried about us, _and_ it'll make her wanna kiss us more!"

Sociable let out a long sigh. "We still gotta try finishing what we were saying about the broom." She suggested. "As long as we don't mess it up, I think it'll send all the right cues to make Diana wanna kiss us. We just gotta hope the Original gets it through our head."

The four turned their attention back to the Ball, and to the image of the blonde girl waiting within.

* * *

Akko shifted on her feet. "I mean…I dunno if we really have to worry about that sorta stuff yet, Diana. I don't…totally know where we're supposed to go either, but you know…I'm…I'm happy with whatever this is now, if that makes sense."

A relieved smile crossed Diana's face. "I'm happy to hear that." She said. "I don't mean to put pressure on you like this, but after what happened with that illusion, I'm a little…out of sorts, at the moment."

"Y-yeah! That broom thing!" Akko nodded enthusiastically. "Like I said, that was cool. I thought it was fun being up there with you, a-and I thought you looked…I mean I think you're….you're really…you know?"

"I…see." Diana lied, very obviously lied. "As long as you had fun up there, then I suppose I have nothing to worry about."

"Well the _thing_ is…w-when we were on the broom…well I guess we were just on the ground but we _thought_ we were on the broom but…" Akko shook her head. "My point is…it was kinda cool, and I was…I mean I sorta thought y-you were gonna…"

Diana took a step closer, and Akko found herself craning her neck back slightly. "Yes…?"

"Y-you know…um…" The words died in Akko's throat as she studied Diana's face. "…hey you got a big bump on your forehead."

"I…what?"

Akko pointed to the purple spot right between Diana's brows. "Yeah, right there in the middle, from when you hit me."

"O-oh. I see." Diana flushed. "Give me a moment then."

She pulled out her wand once more, this time aiming at her own head. And as soon as Diana's attention was off of her. Akko buried her face in her palm.

* * *

All the Atsukos groaned.

"Diligent Akko, why did you make us _say_ that?" Lovely Akko glared. "You can't be mean to Diana like that!"

"But it was true." Diligent said flatly. "She has a bruise right there. I was just being honest."

"That's not romantic to _say_ that!" Lovely argued. "How is this fair? I send up a suggestion for the Original to say and all I get is a bunch of stutters, but when you wanna point out a big ugly bruise all of a sudden we can speak again!"

"This is just sad." Sociable muttered. "I don't think the Original can even speak complete sentences anymore. We're looking like a complete mess right now. There's no way Diana is impressed."

Smart elbowed her, in an effort to keep the group energized and mission active. "I mean, let's just keep in mind, Diana said we don't _need_ to impress her. We can still succeed even if we mess up a lot!"

Sociable just grabbed her by the elbow and pushed her back. "Hey, I _know_ the context of this talk better than anyone, but that doesn't mean we can just babble like a maniac in front of our girlfriend like this! It's like the Original is a moron."

"I don't think we're supposed to talk about the Original Atsuko like that."

"Are you saying she's _not_ a moron?"

"…I'm just saying, we're not supposed to say that." Smart turned to Lovely. "Here's what we can do then. Lovely Akko, when Diana fixes her bruise, you make the Original tell her she looks pretty. Something like how she looks prettier than ever."

"I can do that! She always looks pretty!"

Smart nodded, turning to the other two Atsukos. "As for the rest of us, we just gotta keep ourselves focused and keep this on track, so the Original can't chicken out again."

Diligent simply blinked her lidded eyes, while Sociable scratched the side of her nose. Smart did her best to psych up the psyche. "Come on guys! I know this is bad, but we can totally do this! How much worse could we do at this point?"

* * *

Diana lowered her wand, lightly brushing her finger against her forehead. She turned to Akko. "The bruise is gone now, yes?"

"Yep! Your face looks…looks all like it's usually looking."

Diana snorted, thankfully interpreting it as a deliberate joke. "Thanks for that." She shook her head with a small smile. "So…you found that whole…ordeal on the broom…cool?"

"Y-yeah! I just…I like big cool things like that, you know?"

"That you do." Diana nodded. "I've never known you to back down from something you want to do."

Had it not been said in a soft tone, Akko might've thought of it as sarcasm. "I just like to do fun stuff I guess…Hey, when's your birthday? I could throw you a party!"

"Ah…no. That's fine."

"Ah come on!" Akko pleaded. "It'd be fun!"

"That's more…I just _really_ don't want another repeat of what you did for O'Neill's."

"What was wrong with Amanda's party?"

Diana arched a brow.

Akko held up her hands. "Okay fine! But we cleaned all of that up! And look!" She lifted a leg, gesturing to her calve. "You can't even tell where the glass shards were anymore."

"They were right below your kneecap and in the middle of your hamstring." Diana crossed her arms. "And you can still faintly see the mark on the back of your leg."

Akko attempted to twist around to see the mark for herself. "I…oh. I guess it is there. Huh. How did you notice that? On the back of _my_ leg?"

Diana thought for a moment. "Look, I appreciate the thought, but you _really_ don't need to throw me any sort of party. Truth be told, I prefer…well…moments like this."

"What do you mean?"

"Just things like this." Diana gestured to the sun, now lower than ever on the horizon. "Peaceful, quiet…where I don't have to worry about all my responsibilities." And in a much quieter voice, she added, "And I find that…I enjoy them so much more when I'm with someone I trust."

"I mean…I usually like bigger stuff, but…if you're having fun…then I'm having fun too."

Diana was quiet for a moment, before she turned. "Akko…what were you saying before?" She asked softly. "You said you thought I was doing something on the broom? What…precisely did you think I was doing?"

"W-what did I…?"

* * *

"Okay, we're still here even after all those setbacks!" Sociable Akko said. "We can do it! She's our girlfriend! C'mon, Original Atsuko, stop getting nervous and just say something!"

"Come on come on come on!" Lovely bounced up and down on the beanbag. "Just kiss her! Just kiss her and do it already! We're so close!"

Smart laughed to the group. "This is our moment, Atsukos! We just need to capitalize on this and we-" She glared as the lounge door opened. "…I said ize! Capital _ize_! Not _ism!_ Get out of here, Communist Akko!"

"Oh my god, this is it!" Lovely couldn't stop bouncing. "If we can just make sure we say something cool here, we'll get that kiss for _sure!_ "

The four leaned closer and closer to the Ball, eager to see what the Original would do next.

* * *

"I…" Akko's thoughts raced for a moment, and a million statements ran through her head. "I…dunno!" She lied, scratching the side of her head. "I g-guess I forgot what I was gonna say!"

"Oh." Diana pursed her lips. "You can't think of anything you were expecting up there? B-because…I'm still…"

"W-well, it's just…j-just…"

"Yes?"

"I…um…thought it was…neat?"

* * *

A shoe sailed through the air and thumped uselessly into the Crystal Ball.

"YOU MORON!" Sociable Akko shrieked. "This! Isn't! That! Hard!"

"Are you kidding me?!" Lovely Akko said, throwing her other shoe. "I sent up my suggestion to the Original as _clearly as possible_ and _that's_ what comes out?!"

"I'm filled with rage." Diligent said completely emotionlessly.

"Why can't the Original just _say_ this?!" Smart wrung her hands through her hair as roughly as she could. "She's already your girlfriend! Just shut up and do it already!"

* * *

"…Well." Diana said after a moment. "I'm…glad you found it neat, then."

Akko shook her head. "N-no, neat's not what I _meant_ to say. W-what I was _trying_ to say was…!" She sighed. "Ugh…I'm sorry."

"For what?" Diana asked. "Just finish what you were saying. You know I'm not going to judge you."

"I mean…I dunno!" Akko scratched the side of her head. "You said you didn't care if I was impressive or not, but I mean…I still wanna do _something_ impressive. E-even with everything else, I really…I really _like_ you, and I wanna do nice things for you."

Diana stared at her blankly for a moment, before reaching over and laying a hand on her shoulder. "…I do too, you know." She admitted. "That's why doing all of this was so hard for me. I've never dealt with a relationship like this, and…I suppose I'm something of a perfectionist at heart."

Akko's brows shot up. "Wait, _I'm_ your first girlfriend? R-really?"

"Why is that so surprising?" Diana tilted her head. "Honestly, no one's ever asked."

"Never?" Akko asked, her voice full of disbelief.

"…well, some _boys_ asked here and there, but…" Diana pursed her lips. "Even with _that_ aside, I think people hear about my reputation and get intimidated. You're probably the first person to ever really try and get that close to me. So if everything _else_ wasn't enough to convince you you've impressed me, just keep that in mind."

"I just…I always figured…well that's kinda…cool then." Akko smiled to herself. "I'm the first."

A blush crept up Diana's cheeks. "…Perhaps it would be better to…better to say you're the…o-only. After all, we…decided to take these things one day at a time…right? You said…not to worry about that yet."

"I did!" Akko squeaked. "I mean…I don't want you to worry about that sorta stuff…"

"I…I believe we've already discussed I'm rather attached to you, Akko…"

"Y-yeah…I _guess_ you said that, didn't you?" Akko managed to take a step closer to her. "J-just you and just me, right?"

Diana's expression softened. "Yes…that's what I said, isn't it? And I…w-well…I suppose I should back that up then."

"S-sure! Y-yeah, you can do…that."

Gently Diana reached over and cupped the other girl's chin. And slowly, almost agonizingly so, she leaned down, closing the distance between their lips more and more…

* * *

"Oh wow!" Sociable Akko "She's actually gonna do it!"

"YES!" Lovely Akko jumped up to her feet. "Yes yes yes yes yes _yes!_ Diana is gonna kiss us! We're gonna kiss Diana!"

Smart crossed her arms with a smug smile. "See, Atsukos? I _told_ you we could do it. Even with all that stuttering, we managed to convince Diana to kiss us. Mission accomplished."

"Hey guys." Diligent called out.

Lovely darted over, enthusiastically shaking Smart's hand. "Your plan worked great! We finally got Diana to kiss us! This is the greatest day in our life now!"

"Guys." Diligent repeated.

"I gotta admit, I was wrong." Sociable smiled. "I know Diana said she's bad with this sort of social situation, but now that she's got it, not even the Original could mess it up anymore."

"She won't have to." Diligent said. "Diana's not kissing us."

The room's eyes snapped to the Crystal Ball. Diana was still there, with their chin in her hand and a rosy blush on her cheeks. But unlike the soft expression she had before, the one on her face now was visibly nervous. She was frowning, and her brows twitched as she attempted to concentrate. It was abundantly clear Diana was not going to move forward.

"She's…she's chickening out." Sociable paled. "She's stopping!"

"No!" Lovely shrieked. "No no no no no _no!_ She can't chicken out! She _needs_ to kiss us!"

Smart chewed on her finger. "She _has_ admitted she's not very good at this. I guess I should've considered this happening."

Sociable just groaned, long and loud. "Yeah, but she's supposed to be the smart one who _gets_ all these social cues! Why is she stopping? Come on, how is this fair?"

Smart sighed helplessly. "What do we do now? How are we supposed to get the kiss if Diana's not gonna do it!"

Diligent raised her hand. "Hey, she's right there. We could just meet her halfway."

The other three looked over in surprise. Diligent just shrugged. "All we have to do is lean forward and kiss her, right? So just tell the Original to lean forward and-"

Lovely Akko shoved the other girl out of the way and jumped straight for the Crystal Ball. She slapped both of her hands down on the surface with every single microgram of willpower she had. And within a second, the other three emotions joined in too, doing everything they could to compel their body forward.

They were getting that kiss _now._

* * *

And something within Akko compelled her forward. And so forward she went, with as much passion and energy in her action as she could manage. Perhaps a bit too much, considering as soon as her lips made contact by way of physically smashing directly into the other pair, Diana reeled back in pain.

Akko felt guilt stab through her chest as Diana stumbled backwards. "O-oh my god, sorry! Sorry!"

But to her surprise, Diana actually _snorted_. "I-it's fine, really." She giggled into her hand. "I suppose fair's fair, considering I already hit you tonight."

"S-still! I didn't mean to-!" Akko groaned. "Gah, I just can't seem to do anything right with this…"

"Akko, really, it's _fine._ " Diana assured her. "I guess we're both just overthinking this..."

Akko glared down at the grass beneath their feet. "Yeah, I _know_ I am! I just…gah." She crossed her arms. "How should we do this then…?"

Diana tapped her chin. "W-well…we already _have_ kissed twice in the Archives, haven't we? Just…focus on that, and I'm sure we'll…figure this out just fine."

"I know, I know. It's just that I-" Akko stopped, and looked at her incredulously. "Wait… _twice?_ "

"I…assume so, yes?" Diana shrugged. "I…I mean, the position I woke up back in the Archives was…compromising. I assume that was what happened to wake me up from that, yes? And then of course, I…kissed you right after that."

"But I thought…" Akko's brows furrowed. "Wait, didn't you think you were _dreaming_ when you first woke back up?"

Had Akko not been rather well-versed in the types of expressions that usually crossed Diana's face, she might have missed the flash of horror on Diana's face before it was quickly hidden behind a neutral mask.

"…Well it's about that time." Diana spun on her heels back towards the dorms. "Good night Akko, I hope you have pleasant dreams, always lovely to see you."

Akko quickly darted in front of her, cutting off her escape route. "Waitwaitwait! H-hang on! You can't just admit that and leave!"

Diana winced. "It…would be rather hypocritical for me to stress honesty and then…" She cleared her throat. "But I…merely think we could… _table_ this discussion, for a more appropriate time."

Akko was unconvinced. "You _remember_ doing that?" She asked wide-eyed. "W-were you just…pretending to be all loopy?"

Diana's gaze turned skyward. "I…admittedly, I was not _entirely_ in my right frame of mind at the time. I was still rather…loopy from everything that happened, but you seemed embarrassed, so I thought I would…"

"S-so…wait." Akko swallowed, feeling the heat rise up her cheeks. "That was actually you kissing me…?"

"I…thought you did a very good job." Diana admitted quietly. "I felt like I had to do… _thank_ you somehow, and I…made a rather rash decision. My apologies then."

Akko crossed her arms, and took a moment to collect her thoughts. And once her thoughts were thoroughly collected, she turned around once more and cleared her throat. "S-so! You did it to thank me for helping you, but…I mean, today, you helped _me_. I feel like maybe then…I should thank _you_."

Diana smiled as she realized what was happening. "…I certainly wouldn't be opposed. It would be proper to thank someone when they do something kind."

Akko stood on her toes to get a better vantage point. "So I'm just gonna put my arms around your shoulders…s-so I can…"

"By all means." Diana arms settled around Akko's waist. "S-so…how would you like to show your gratitude then…?"

An embarrassed giggle escaped Akko's throat as she pulled herself closer. "I can't…really think of anything else to say." She whispered.

Diana's arms squeezed just a little tighter around her waist. "N-nor can I…" Her breath was hot against Akko's lips. "I suppose…perhaps…we can just…"

Akko closed her eyes and leaned forward. And from her grip around Diana's shoulders, she could feel her doing much the same. And suddenly she found that a lot of her anxieties were disappearing. She was doing her best not to be worked up anymore. After all, maybe this was the real solution to her problem. If she just stopped paying so much mind to everything and went with her gut like she used to always do, things would work out. From now on, she was going to mind le-

And then they heard a sharp, scandalized gasp.

Both Akko and Diana froze, their eyes snapping over.

Professor Ursula was looking everywhere but directly at the two girls locked together. Her cheeks looked much the same shade of red as her hair. "S-so sorry, girls! I didn't mean to walk in when you two w-were…I didn't even know you two-! Sorry!"

Neither Diana nor Akko could bring themselves to try and say something in response.

Ursula cleared her throat, still looking pointedly at the blank brick wall of the classroom building. "Professor Pisces contacted me and said Akko wasn't…I thought I should check and…" She pushed her glasses up her nose before finally glancing down at the two. "S-so Akko, you're okay then? F-feeling better?"

All Akko could do was slowly nod.

"Good! That's good! Very good. Good, good, good." Ursula nodded back in a very mechanical way. "Sorry to interrupt your…I mean, we were all teenagers once, after all, it's not like…" She paused, and when neither girl responded, forced a smile onto her face. "I'll…ah…be going then. Have a night nice. Nice night."

With that, Ursula turned and walked in the other direction, pulling her hat down over her face. Diana and Akko silently untangled their arms to lay flat at their sides, and Akko went right back to flat on her feet, watching as the Professor darted away.

Diana spoke up first, in a quiet voice. "…Nice of Ursula to come check on you."

Akko nodded, speaking equally quietly. "Yeah. That was cool of her."

"She was very quick to respond to Pisces."

"Yeah. Quick. She's always coming by at the…best time."

"Hmm."

"Yeah."

Diana finally turned to look at Akko. "I…suppose we could go get dinner now? It's a little later than usual, so…I suppose the others will have eaten already."

"So just us." Akko said. "Cool. I could eat something. Let's do that."

With little else they could bring themselves to say at this point, the two simply gathered their nerves and walked in almost silence towards the cafeteria. And after a moment, Akko braved enough to smile to the girl walking at her side.

"…Hey, Diana. This wasn't how I _wanted_ to do it, but uh…thanks again for fixing everything today."

"Think nothing of it." Diana said simply. "And don't hesitate to… _thank_ me if the desire ever comes up again."

Akko's cheeks heated once more, but she reached over and softly took Diana's hand in her own. As the two walked back for a late dinner, her thoughts raced once more.

* * *

And all around the Crystal Ball, three emotions scowled while one looked on with a bored expression. Sociable Akko threw up her hands. "Well doesn't _that_ just fit our luck!? We finally work up the nerve and something comes completely outta nowhere to screw it up!"

"We did manage to kiss her though." Diligent pointed out.

"Yeah, by slamming our face into her." Lovely said, hiding her head in her hands. "Oh my god, that was just _terrible_. And we were so close to fixing it and then…uuuugh."

"Think she's as disappointed as us?" Sociable looked down at the Crystal Ball. But Diana's expression on the Crystal Ball was as blank and inscrutable as ever.

The four of them sighed.

Smart stood from her beanbag with an optimistic smile. "Well, it's not a total loss. I mean, she basically just said we can kiss her whenever we want." She smiled brightly. "And now we're getting dinner together. We like food, right?"

Sociable slowly, but surely, began to nod. "At least the Original _went_ for it this time. There's hope for us yet. We actually _are_ getting better. The Original usually doesn't worry about stuff she already did once."

Lovely let out a swoon. "Yeah…at least we got to hear Diana say she loves us. She's so amazing. And we're still holding her hand, so it's not all bad, right?"

And even Diligent managed to crack a smile. "Hearing that really _did_ motivate the Original. And Diana's been saying things like that a lot more since last week. Next time, it should be much less work to get the operation to succeed."

And despite the failure, the four happily began to chat, going right back to their typical carefree activities. It wasn't like a little screw-up here and there was enough to get this mind down for long. Maybe all that changed today was getting to learn a bit more about Diana being just as anxious about this as they were, but small progress was still progress.

They'd find some way to make it up to her. And now they knew for sure they had all the time they could need. There was no doubt she was going to be at her side for the long haul, and for Akko, that was enough of an outcome to feel positive about the future. Even if Diana wasn't as disappointed with this outcome as they were.

* * *

One mind over, in a professional, well-maintained conference room, a psyche remote control was tossed with great force at the projector. A Diana with a Rose in her hair seethed, sending the chair she was sitting on tumbling to the ground, startling the several mental Dianas next to her. All of them were fairly frustrated at the sudden interruption of their big moment, but Rose in particular burned with absolute fury at their failure to convince Akko to kiss them.

"What the hell?!" Rose threw up her arms.

"Yep." Officer Diana nodded in agreement.

"What the hell?!"

* * *

 _A.N. So a bit like how the climax of MindFull was a showcase of strength vs MindLess being an admission of weakness, I thought it'd be fun to take the dynamic between the mind and the speaker from the bonus chapter and flip it around. Akko is much more in touch with her emotions than Diana, which is why all her personas have the same voice as her vs how differently all the Dianas spoke, but then just because you know how you feel doesn't mean..._

 _But nonetheless, it comes to a close! I hope you enjoyed these two stories! I don't have any other big projects planned at the moment, but with my finals done, I'll probably write a one-shot or three. Which usually turns into three chapters, because I'm way too long-winded and can't shut up. Ah, but we'll burn that bridge when we come to it. Until then, hope any of you still in school make it to the holidays! Thanks for so many amazing comments and feedback on the both of these! I can't overstate how much those really got me through the day sometimes!_


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